of civilisation, or she had discovered the 'swanbill'!"

[1] It is by Courthope, not Collins.

[2] See Appendix II.

CHAPTER XIII

THE FLOOD

Tuesday, _September_ 12.--A second edition of the Noachian deluge is upon
us! It began to rain on Saturday, at the close of a hot and stuffy week,
and, having succeeded in thoroughly soaking the unfortunate ladies who
were engaged in a golf competition that day, it proceeded to rain
abundantly all through Sunday and Monday.

The outlook from our hut is dispiriting; through a thick grey veil of
vapour the gleam of water shines over the swamp that was the polo-ground.
The little muddy stream in which so many erring golf-balls lie low is up
and out for a ramble over its banks. The lower golf-greens resemble
paddy-fields, and round the marg the spires of dull grey pines stand
dripping in a steadfast shower-bath.

Sometimes the heavy cloud folds everything in its leaden wing, blotting
out even the streaming village at our feet, and reducing our view to the
immediate slope below us where the wilted ragwort and rank weeds bend
before the tiny torrents which trickle everywhere. Then comes a break,
falsely suggestive of an improvement, and lo! soaring above the cloudy
boil, the lofty shoulders of Apharwat sheeted in new-fallen snow!

After the somewhat oppressive heat of last week, the sudden raw cold
strikes home, and Jane and I take a great interest in the fire, the "Old
Snake"[1] is an accomplished fire-master, and it is pleasant to watch him
squatting like an ungainly frog in front of the hearth, and sagaciously
feeding the flame with damp and spitting logs.

It is amazing what lavish expenditure of fuel one will indulge in when it
costs nothing a ton!

We are just beginning to find out the exact spots where chairs may be
planted so as to avoid the searching draughts which go far to make our
happy home like a very airy sort of bird-cage.

Well! we might have been worrying through all this in a sodden tent, where
even a boarded floor would barely have kept out rheumatism, and where one
would have been liable to alarms and excursions at all sorts of untoward
times when drains wanted deepening and guys slackening. The mere thought
of such things sent us into a truly thankful state of mind, and we
discussed from our cosy chairs the probable condition of the party from
the Residency which set forth, full of high hope, on Saturday morning to
attack the markhor of Poonch.