1 4 WHERE THREE EMPIRES MEET
2 favour a good deal could be said. A Punjabi coach-
3 man drove us with true Mussulman fatalist recklessness
4 at a good twelve miles an hour towards the hills, a lad
5 hanging on behind anyhow he could, blowing a horn
6 to give warning of our wild approach whenever we
7 were about to turn a corner. We changed horses
8 every five miles or so, and in less than an hour and a
9 half we reached the outposts of the mountains, and had
10 to somewhat moderate our pace. The road now wound
11 along the sides of pleasant valleys with wooded slopes
12 and cultivated bottoms vivid with the green of young
13 rice. We gradually ascended, the air getting per-
14 ceptibly cooler, till we reached the dak bungalow or
15 post-house — it is scarcely necessary to translate the
16 word in these days of Rudyard Kipling — of Tret, which
17 is twenty-five miles from Rawal Pindi. The ekkas came
18 in long after us ; our progress along the road had, of
19 course, to be regulated by that of our baggage, and as
20 the ekka horses are not changed at the stages, but have
21 to go right through, our rate of travelling was not
22 rapid.
23 The next day, having allowed the tardy ekkas to get
24 a good start, we were off again. We only accomplished
25 fourteen miles this day, to Murree ; but the road zig-
26 zagged up the hills by a steady incline all the way, and
27 was trying for horses.
28 At first the country^ we passed through reminded one
29 of the fair valleys on the Italian slope of the Alps in
30 spring. We drove through woods of fragrant deodars
31 and firs ; the fruit-trees, the violets and other flowers were
32 all in blossom, while clear cool water ran merrily down
33 every hollow. But when we got higher the air was
34 cold and the scenery had a wintry aspect. The road
35 was in very bad condition, and in places was being