other's company for the time being (instead of one riding ahead
while the other walked). Shortly we rounded a corner, and another shot
rang out, followed by the appearance of two more mounted infantrymen. We
asked the latter what the firing was about, and they told us that the
commandant of the donkey corps, who was just round the next corner with
his donkeys, was making a fine bag of pigeons.

CHAPTER IX

NAINI: TIBETAN WARFARE

We were all halted a day or two at Kangma. There was some truth after
all in the yarn of the first two mounted infantrymen whom we had met on
the road, for some of the enemy had been located not far away, and a
flying column had gone out after them. The enemy evaded the column
successfully, and the latter returned after no other incident except the
death of a man and one or two mules from the effects of drinking water
which the brave enemy, ignorant of such Western vagaries as the Geneva
Convention, had artfully poisoned.

Some unladen mules, of which we stood in considerable need, were brought
in that same day by a small escort from Gyantse. They had been fired on
_en route_, and so everything began to point to the chance of a bit of
fighting in the near future.

From here onwards we amalgamated into one column, and that first march
out of Kangma was particularly typical of the inconveniences of a
comparatively long column when marching on a narrow hill-road. It may
seem strange, but was really quite natural, that our small force with
its transport should occupy five miles of road-way, which was, I
believe, its approximate length, and to get this five-mile-long serpent
to crawl successfully through the 'Red Idol gorge,' and later on wriggle
over a certain very narrow, rather ricketty bridge, that barred the way
close to camp, was a matter of many tedious hours. Horribly cold it was
too that afternoon, as one waited for one's kit to turn up, the valley
just there being a veritable chimney that drew a terrific draught up
from the Gyantse direction.

Our labours were also beginning to increase somewhat, owing both to the
compressed fodder from India having run out, and our being no longer in
a peaceful region, where we could procure fodder by contract. Both at
Kangma and here we had to send out foraging parties. We were still
observing a most courteous attitude towards the enemy, and were paying
the villagers handsome sums for what fodder we took, provided any
villagers showed the