be auctioneer of the effects of a comrade is not an
enviable post. I had to auction Major Bretherton's things, and found
that the adoption of the correct, breezy, businesslike auctioneer's
manner was up-hill work. A man so stamps his individuality on his
belongings that often some well-worn familiar garment, as for instance
the 'coat-warm British' with fur-lined collar that the officer had been
used to wear on cold mornings, brings, as you hold it up to sale, many
sad associations. And yet you must look round inquiringly, you must
snatch on to the first bid, and appeal loudly for a higher. When the
topmost bid is reached and no other is forthcoming, you must throw the
coat to the buyer with a careless air and collect his rupees.

The prices that different articles fetch at these auctions is often
amazing. The demand of course depends on whether the force as a whole
has grown short of the particular article now for sale, and whether it
can or cannot be obtained by the individual through the post. Beyond
Gyantse there was no regular parcels post, so that of many articles we
were feeling a keen want. Accordingly, a few sheets of note paper and a
few envelopes held up in the hand as one enticing 'lot' would on that
occasion fetch two rupees. At another similar auction I remember
half-pounds of tobacco going for five rupees each, and one-rupee packets
of 'Three Castles' cigarettes also for five rupees.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE END OF THE CROSSING: THE 'CHIT' IN TIBET

The Sappers and Miners, the coolis, the boatmen, the various units
employed on fatigue, and the mule drivers must have been heartily glad
when the crossing was all over. We were leaving both yaks and donkeys
behind here (to work with convoys between Gyantse and Chaksam), so that
we did not have to accomplish the feat of embarking and disembarking
these somewhat clumsy animals; but even so, the amount of labour that
had been involved was immense. I am told that, at any rate in Indian
frontier warfare, there has hitherto been no instance of a force of this
size crossing a river of this dimension without the aid of a pontoon
bridge (the materials for which it would have been impossible on this
occasion to carry with us). Further, the actual breadth of the river
gave no idea of the difficulty of crossing it. The swiftness of the
current, the whirlpools, and the speed with which the river, fed as it
was by mountain streams, rose and fell, constituted the main