r terms
rather than waste any more time, now that we were so near British soil.

[Illustration: A JUMLI SHED]

Escorted by this large force of men, we had nearly reached Kardam when,
in the nick of time, a horseman came up at full gallop and hailed our
party. We stopped, and the man overtook us and handed Lapsang a letter.
It contained an order to bring us immediately into Taklakot.

We retraced our steps along the undulating plateau above the Gakkon
River, and late at night we reached the village of Dogmar, a peculiar
settlement in a valley between two high cliffs of clay, the natives of
which live in holes pierced in the cliff.

[Illustration: WE ATTACKED OUR GUARD WITH STONES]

Lapsang, the Jong Pen's Private Secretary, and the greater portion of
their soldiers, having changed their ponies, went on to Taklakot; but we
were made to halt here, when yet another letter came from the Jong Pen
saying he had changed his mind and we must, after all, go by the Lumpiya
Pass!

[Illustration: LAPSANG AND THE JONG PEN'S PRIVATE SECRETARY]

CHAPTER XCVIII

A Commotion--The arrival of an army--Elected
General-in-chief--How we were to slaughter the Jong Pen's
soldiers--My men lay down their arms--Towards Taklakot--Delaling
and Sibling--Taklakot at last.

DURING the night there was a great commotion in the place, the people
running about and shouting, and a large number of ponies with their
riders arriving.

Tibet is farmed out, so to speak, to officials who have become small
feudal kings, and these are generally at logger-heads among themselves.
To this regal jealousy, and to disputes over the rights of the road, was
due the appearance of this new army. There were altogether some hundred
and fifty men armed with matchlocks and swords. The chieftain of this
band came to me with eight or ten other officers, and spoke so excitedly
that I feared there was trouble in store for us. There was indeed. These
new arrivals were officers and soldiers from Gyanema, Kardam, and Barca,
and they had come with strict orders from the Barca Tarjum that we were
on no account to traverse his province or to cross by the Lumpiya Pass.
This was very amusing and tantalising, for we had now no way across the
frontier open to us. Our guard and some of the Jong Pen's men who had
remained behind, finding they were in the minority, thought it prudent to
eclipse themselves; and I, anxious as I naturally was to get out of th