It was Impossible to get enough natives to carry out our equipment end supplies, for when the news arrived, everyone had disappeared, Including the headman, He had us one man before he left and a note to the headman of the next village to supply us with enough perters to see us to our destination. Through the help of our landlady, whose son we cured of malaria, we managed to round up two more men. But there was no sleep for us that night; the Reds were much too near for comfort, It snowed heavily during the night, adding another encumbrance to our speed, for both of us had to carry B0-Ib.' packs in order to bring all our important equipment back to Tacaienlu. We were blessed with sunshine the first half of the day. but a raging snow storm greeted us halfway up the mountain pass where we had to halt to pick up the food provisions which we had stored away for emergency several days before. With this added lead, we had a miserable time ploughing through the soft snow, which piled up two feet @eep near the summit. It was dark when vat' last_we reached the next village, having covered the distance of 110 li in thirteen hours, "Crowning Glory of Hay"
As both flashlight batteries and Kerosene were exhausted, we resorted to a temporary torch made of dried bamboo twigs. To our disappointment, however, we approached the houses ' only to'find them all empty. Tt was Impossible to proceed in the dark and we were all ver: much in need of rest. We decided, therefore, to spend the night in one of the houses. While Quentin went up to the loft to spread out our bedding, I kept @ watchful eye on the porters see that they did not run away until we found effiers to take their place. Suddenly, without warning. we heard Quentin shouting, "Come:
it or T'll shoot! We scrambled up the ladder with our butter lamps, anticipating great trouble, and. and behold! whom should we see but harmless old man crawling sheepishly out from under a stack of hay. To be sure, he was the village headman, locking most undignified with his crowning glory of hay! We laughed in sheer relief, while inc headman tried to cover his embarassment. He had heard our shouting, he explained and fearing that we were defeated soldiers or Reds, he and the rest of the villagers had gone In hiding.
Nor could we blame them for their fears. Only the day before our arrival, twenty Lo Lo soldiers hi spent the night there, eating everything there was and taking with them the natives' bedding, clothing. bowl; und other precious belongings. nade a proposition to the headman that If he could get four men to carry our packs to Tachienlu, we would try to catch up with these soldiers and retrieve the stolen goods. He accepted it immediately and the next morning sent us three men and one husky woman, Disarming Soldiers We inquired carefully hew the soldier-robbers were armed, ani learned that they had two rifles and several hand-grenades, The rest the party consisted of horse attendants with seven horses. ant unarmed. Our scheme to disarm them was simple but most effective. We would approach them casually Commons Discuss Cost of Singapore Base roc 30 708 noe, Mara"
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.