He was sullen and furtive. I judged him at
sight to be half Hindu, half Tibetan. He had a dark complexion, between
brown and tawny; narrow slant eyes, very small and beady-black, with a
cunning leer in their oblique corners; a flat nose much broadened at the
wings; a cruel, thick, sensuous mouth, and high cheek-bones; the whole
surmounted by a comprehensive scowl and an abundant crop of lank black
hair, tied up in a knot at the nape of the neck with a yellow ribbon.
His face was shifty; his short, stout form looked well adapted to
mountain climbing, and also to wriggling. A deep scar on his left cheek
did not help to inspire confidence. But he was polite and civil-spoken.
Altogether a clever, unscrupulous, wide-awake soul, who would serve you
well if he thought he could make by it, and would betray you at a pinch
to the highest bidder.
We set out, in merry mood, prepared to solve all the abstruse problems
of the Buddhist religion. Our spoilt child stood the camping out better
than I expected. She was fretful, of course, and worried about trifles;
she missed her maid and her accustomed comforts; but she minded the
roughing it less, on the whole, than she had minded the boredom of
inaction in the bungalow; and, being cast on Hilda and myself for
resources, she suddenly evolved an unexpected taste for producing,
developing, and printing photographs.
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