guide him to camp by shouting and firing shots, but
without success; this plucky man did not turn up
until the following day, refusing to leave his charges,
and spending the night on the road without food or
rugs. One of the ponies was too weak to extricate
himself from a snowdrift into which he had fallen, and
the other also died soon after arrival.
Though we hardly expected to find Hargreaves at
that time of the night, a sharp look-out was kept for
his camp-fires, but without success.
CHAPTER IX
TREASURE TROVE
N othing was to be seen of Hargreaves or his camp on
the following morning, so all the men, with the exception
of the cook, were despatched on scouting duty.
At about eleven o’clock two men and a pony were
seen in the far distance, slowly approaching the camp ;
one of our scouts met them, and, with the aid of our
glasses, we saw them shake hands ; an hour later the
party arrived in camp. They proved to be Umar
Sheik and Num Gel, with Hargreaves’ riding-pony.
Their first proceeding was to throw themselves on
the ground and burst into tears, a somewhat disconcert-
| ing manoeuvre ; no information could be dragged from
I them for some minutes, but at last, after much fumbling
in their inner pockets, they produced a letter in
I Hargreaves’ familiar handwriting. This was a relief, IE for I was beginning to fear that something serious had
I happened to my friend, but the news the letter con-
I tained was bad enough.
Two days after we had parted company at Arport
I Tso, he had been overtaken by a blizzard which lasted
I more or less for four days ; eighteen of our own twenty -
I four ponies and two of the four hired ones had suc-
I cumbed to starvation and cold ; no stores of grain
arrived, for the yak-dri vers, throwing everything away,
I including all the rice and most of the flour, had
■ deserted en masse. Realising that my detached party