n, who still thought it was in existence. A new symbol, such as
that of a man's head, was thus naturally viewed at first with
suspicion.

CHAPTER XIII

THE KARO-LA

The next day brought us just under the Karo-La pass, and we camped at a
height of 16,600 feet, with a great mass of snow so near us on the
hillside that, while the sun was still up, it quite hurt our eyes to
look in that direction. Avalanches of snow kept falling from the mass,
coming down with a great thud that was almost startling. There was a
little mountain sickness that night; but, considering the height and the
fatigue that had been involved in reaching it, there was remarkably
little. A very little reconnoitring to the front in the early afternoon
had revealed the enemy in position a mile or so the other side of the
pass. They had built two walls, one behind the other, on what appeared
to be admirably selected ground. They seemed in fact to have been
studying tactics to some purpose.

It was pleasant to get up the next morning in a sharp frost, and to get,
as it were, one glimpse into winter--a glimpse, however, that only
lasted till the sun got up. Cold for the past few months had not been
our bugbear, but rain, and to-day there was no rain, the sky was
cloudless, and the air crisp and fresh, and as soon as the sun was up,
even moderately warm.

A few minutes' walk took us to the top of the pass, 16,800 feet. From
there the road descended gradually, but the headquarters' Staff, whom
for the moment I was accompanying, kept to the hillside at the same
level as the top of the pass till they came to a good _coin de vantage_
from which to view the first phase of the fight. For it was obvious that
we were to be opposed.

The artillery stayed close by us, while two parties of Ghurkhas were
sent to scale the heights on either side, and the Fusiliers and some
more infantry sent along the valley to attack the formidable-looking
walls which the Tibetans had erected ahead of us.

It soon appeared that the enemy had decided at the last to leave the two
walls down in the valley, behind either of which they could have
assuredly made a useful stand, and had instead betaken themselves to the
top of an almost inaccessible ridge overlooking the walls and about two
thousand feet above them, on what was to us the right side of the
valley. From near the top of this ridge a jingal soon began firing, and
kept up an intermittent cannonade for several hours.