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boiled water for the coffee was needed. I had hired mules and muleteers for the trip from our circle headman, to avoid the delay caused by changing animals daily on the way. The rains were just starting and I was anxious to get through before the mule tracks became impassable. We moved by short cuts through the mountains. In many places the track was less than a foot wide; it would slope outwards towards the edge, where the mountain fell away almost sheer. When it was raining, and the path slippery, I did not like it; I often got off my pony and walked. But the pony was very sure-footed; he would scramble like a cat over the more slippery places, and after a time I got used to it and no longer bothered to dismount. It was so uncomfortable to come back to a wet saddle.
The Chinese Expeditionary Force had commenced to attack across the Salween north of Kokang towards Tengchung and Lungling. As we followed the Salween to Paoshan we could hear the sound of the shelling. At several places we came across small Sino-American battle patrols, waiting to cross the river and join in, and when I struck the Burma road, south of Paoshan, the Americans kindly gave me a lift in a jeep. At Paoshan the lorry sent from Kun-ming to meet us was waiting.
Our party in Kokang were short of cigarettes, sugar, and flour, and it was the intention to buy a stock of these in Paoshan, load them onto my mules, and send them back with Rogue. On our way out we had not once been asked for a pass by the Chinese troops; indeed we had none. I left Rogue in the hands of the British Assistant Military Attaché at Paoshan, who thought he would have no difficulty in getting passes for the return passage to Kokang. But he was mistaken; the passes were refused. Three weeks later when I left Kun-ming for India Rogue was still waiting for his pass and our people in Kokang were still waiting for their supplies.
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boiled water for the coffee was needed. I had hired mules and muleteers for the trip from our circle headman, to avoid the delay caused by changing animals daily on the way. The rains were just starting and I was anxious to get through before the mule tracks became impassable. We moved by short cuts through the mountains. In many places the track was less than a foot wide; it would slope outwards towards the edge, where the mountain fell away almost sheer. When it was raining, and the path slippery, I did not like it; I often got off my pony and walked. But the pony was very sure footed; he would scramble like a cat over the more slippery places, and after a time I got used to it and no longer bothered to dismount. It was so uncomfortable to come back to a wet saddle.
The Chinese Expeditionary Force had commenced to attack across the Salween north of Kokang towards Tengchung and Lungling. As we followed the Saleen to Paoshan we could hear the sound of the shelling. At several places we came across small Sino-American battle patrols, waiting to cross the river and join in, and when I struck the Burma road, south of Paoshan, the Americans kindly gave me a lift in a jeep. At Paoshan the lorry sent from Kun-ming to meet us was waiting.
Our party in Kokang were short of cigarettes, sugar, and flour, and it was the intention to buy a stock of these in Paoshan, load them onto my mules, and send them back with Rogue. On our way out we had not once been asked for a pass by the Chinese troops; indeed we had none. I left Rogue in the hands of the British Assistant Military Attache at Paoshan, who thought he would have no difficulty in getting passes for the return passage to Kokang. But he was mistaken; the passes were refused. Three weeks later when I left Kun-ming for India Rogue was still waiting for his pass and our people in Kokang were still waiting for their supplies.
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