Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 279 (Color Image)

0279	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. ix.] A MISHAP. 233

and came sliding down the slope at a frightful

pace. Luckily, however, he still managed to

keep hold of the rope with one hand, and so

kept himself from dashing over the ice-fall at

the side of the slope ; but when he reached the

rock his hand was almost bared of skin, and

he was shivering with fright. Wali, however,

gave him a sound rating for being so careless,

and on the next stage made him do all the

hardest part of the work.

The other men got down the slope without

mishap, and then came the last man. He, of

course, could not have the benefit of a rope to

hang on by, for he would have to untie it from

the rock and bring it with him. Wali had

selected for this, the most dangerous piece of

work in the whole descent, the man who had

especially troubled me by knocking pieces of

ice over the precipice when we were on the

ice-slope at the head of the pass. He was one

of the slaves I had released at Yarkand ; an

incessant grumbler, and very rough, but, next

to Wali, the best man I had for any really hard

work. He tied the end of the rope round his

waist, and then slowly and carefully came down

the steps which had been hewn in the slope.

National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books