Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 283 (Color Image)

0283	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. Ix.] A REFRESHING SLEEP. 237

bottle of brandy broken ! Lady Walsham,

on my leaving Peking, had insisted upon giving

me at least two bottles of brandy for the

journey. I had drunk one in the Gobi Desert,

and I had made up my mind to keep the other

till the day I had crossed the Mustagh Pass,

but there it was broken, and the brandy wasted,

just when both the men and myself were really

needing something to pull us together. The

bundle of bedding had been thrown over the

pass to save carrying it down, and though the

bottle had been wrapped up in my sheepskin

sleeping-bag, it had been smashed to pieces.

About eleven o'clock we at last reached a

piece of ground on the mountain-side free from

snow, and here we halted for the night. There

was no wood, and only a few roots of weeds

about with which to light a fire, so we had to

break up a couple of our alpenstocks to make

a small fire, by which we managed to boil

sufficient water to make a few cups of tea.

We had some buscuit with that, and then I got

into my sheepskin bag, and the men wrapped

themselves up in their sheepskin coats, and we

lay down and slept as if nothing could ever

wake us again. The work and anxiety on the

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