Across the Andes . over with fiveinches of snow, and apparently comfortable andindifferent to the fact. CHAPTER X THE TOLL GATE AND MAPIRI PACKING the mules in the bitter winterdawn was slow work. The rawhide lash-ings were frozen stifif; our saddles werecovered with sleet, before we could mountand swing into them; two arrieros were drunktogether with Agamemnon, but the latter alonewas helpless and useless after the tender carehe had bestowed on a secreted bottle of usual chocolate grin was lost in the agoniesof de misry in de haid, sar, and, utterly de-jected, he rode along with h
Across the Andes . over with fiveinches of snow, and apparently comfortable andindifferent to the fact. CHAPTER X THE TOLL GATE AND MAPIRI PACKING the mules in the bitter winterdawn was slow work. The rawhide lash-ings were frozen stifif; our saddles werecovered with sleet, before we could mountand swing into them; two arrieros were drunktogether with Agamemnon, but the latter alonewas helpless and useless after the tender carehe had bestowed on a secreted bottle of usual chocolate grin was lost in the agoniesof de misry in de haid, sar, and, utterly de-jected, he rode along with his wooly skull nakedto the sleet and with an ice-coated sock as abandage to keep it within the normal circum-ference. Whatever course the trail turned, the bliz-zard seemed to shift to meet us again square inthe teeth. The shale and debris along the nar-row ledge of trail was treacherous with an icy I4S 146 ACROSS THE ANDES glare. The saddle buckles were knots of ice,and every now and then we beat our hats against. T ANDEAN MOUNTAINBfiR. THE TOLL GATE AND MAPIRI 147 the mule to break the ice that encrusted them;on my poncho the sleet froze in a thin sheet thatwould crackle with any movement and rattle particles of ice and snow did not fall as ina self-respecting gale, but were whipped alongin the blast in streaks that never seemed to the high, thin air, the bitter cold of the stormseemed to bite like an acid. Even though themules were mountain-bred, the rare air of thishigh pass affected them and as we climbedhigher, they began to halt every fifty yards forbreath, with their icicled flanks heaving in dis-tress. In a moment they would start on againof their own accord, yet sometimes in the fiercerblasts of the storm only the constant spur wouldkeep them in the trail and headed for the passabove. At last there was the feel of a level stretchunder hoof, and there loomed the big mound ofstones, with a twig cross on top and its strips ofcalico whipped to shreds; the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1912
