ear the bridge, and one mule
was actually hit in the act of crossing. The crossing of that bridge
took till late into the night. All the way from Naini the path was
intersected with irrigation nullahs, of which most were full of water.
This caused many checks, which culminated in the block at the bridge.
The latter began to fall to pieces before all the transport was over,
some animals occasionally falling off into the water. The last of the
rearguard reached camp about midnight.

CHAPTER X

AT GYANTSE: FIGHTING: FORAGING: TIBETAN RELIGIOUS ART

The ten days or so spent at Gyantse were occupied in fighting, in
waiting, through periodical armistices, for the result of negotiations
which came to nothing, in sightseeing and in foraging for our present
needs, and for the advance to Lhassa.

The two fights here alluded to were the taking of Tsechin and the taking
of Gyantse-jong. At the former I again had a front seat in the stalls,
watching the show in company with the headquarters' Staff, but had to
leave, with some aggravating message to camp, just as the curtain was
rising on the last act. During that long day, at the end of which
Gyantse-jong was taken, I saw very little of the fighting till just the
very climax, when certain duties took me to the village Pala, where the
Staff were watching the final phase. No boredom on this occasion, but
intense excitement. The final assault on the jong was a sight well worth
remembering, coming as it did at the close of so tedious an action. The
artistic effect of the Maxim on what one might call spectacular warfare
is, I think, greater than that of artillery. Shells going off at
intervals of course bring out the tragedy of war by the awful noise
which they make, but the rapid ping-ping-ping of the Maxim sets your
blood tingling and really excites you. It was a glorious spectacle, that
last assault. The rush through the breach of those Ghurkhas and their
comrades into that frowning impregnable-looking jong to the tune of
artillery, dynamite, and Maxims would have appealed to the veriest man
of peace. And as the jong became ours, the cheer that went up from
every point where troops and followers stood in knots, watching the
outcome, was a glorious climax to that long day.

A flying column that followed the retreating enemy to Dongtse failed to
catch them up, but returned with a fine haul of useful forage. Foraging
had for some time been the order of the day, except when f