Patrick O’Brian - Caesar & Hussein - Two Classic Novels from the Author of MASTER AND COMMANDER

However, one day it poked its head through the bars and made foolish noises at me, trying to make friends, no doubt. But, to punish its impudence, I bit its head right off, and so stopped its idiotic chauntering.

My master was very angry and took no notice of me for three days, but I had the satisfaction of knowing that he could no longer like the red panda.

As I have said, my mother was a very large snow-leopard, and this accounts for the fact that I was growing so very large. Also, my legs, unlike those of most great pandas, were growing quite long, and I could run very fast.

About this time the spring was coming on and my summer coat was growing. I noticed a lot of blackish spots on my new fur which I thought greatly enhanced my appearance.

A week after I killed the red panda my master took me out hunting again. This time we went on for four days right up to the foothills of the great range of mountains, which I had seen from my cave and which was about eighty miles to the west.

After we had stayed there for two days, hunting sha and bharal, we ascended half-way up the nearest of the mountains. It was hardly a mountain, but really only a large foothill, being the top of a long ridge, which extended right and left, before we came to the real heights. We left the horse tethered near the tent in which my master always slept.

On reaching that part of the mountain where the snow always lay I killed an ibex, which my master skinned and cut up, putting the very best pieces into his knapsack and giving me the rest. Then we went still higher up, and I noticed my master was breathing with difficulty. So we stopped, and after looking all round at the vast extent of land below us, we began to descend. I stayed behind, finishing the last pieces of the ibex, and after a few minutes my master turned and called me.

He did not appear to be able to see me until I moved, and for the first time I saw the use of my white coat, which made me quite invisible against the snow. After about two hours we reached the horse, which was feeding on some of the scanty grass which was the vegetation. He was pleased to see us, and, as he had broken his rope, he trotted up to my master, who patted his neck, and I felt rather jealous but did not show it.

When night fell my master made a fire and cooked the pieces of ibex in a pot full of melted snow.

Then next morning he put the tent down and we all ascended the mountain side. The horse was a lot of trouble, but at last we got about half-way up. He put the tent up again behind a huge boulder where there was no snow. It was hard for him to fix the tent pegs, but at last he found a patch of ground with a little grass on it.

Soon he had a fire on the bare rock, where he cooked some more of the ibex, some of which he gave to me.

Later in the day he shot a goat (which I had missed) which had darted up a pinnacle of rock. This was the most remarkable piece of rock which I had ever seen, jutting straight out into the air over a precipice of about two thousand feet. The goat, on being shot, bounded into the air and luckily fell our side of the precipice.

As the cold was intense my master made a coat from the skin of this goat and the ibex, which he wore with the fur inside. At the time I remember I thought human skin must be very poor protection against the cold.

On the next day, as I was following a very large goat up a sharp incline towards the peak, it suddenly disappeared from view behind a rock. In a few minutes I had reached the place, but the goat was nowhere to be seen. Then I observed a narrow fissure in the mountain side through which it must have gone. I thought I had him now for certain, as in his terror he had fled into a blind alley.

This was not so, however, for on investigation the fissure proved to lead into a roughly circular tunnel, down which I could dimly see the goat.

Its hoof-beats echoed and re-echoed till it sounded like twenty goats. I followed it for some way, but it seemed to know the twists and turns of the tunnel, and after turning a corner, before I had time to see where I was going, it darted off into a side turning leading off the main one.

I ran on for some little way and passed several tunnels which led off the one I was following. I think I passed five before I came to a place where the main passage split into four. Rapidly selecting one, I darted down it and charged full tilt into a very chilly and deep stream. Scrambling out I pursued my course until I realised that the goat must have escaped me.

I began to retrace my steps, and after crossing the stream I came to the place where the tunnels converged, and I wondered which one I had come by. I chose one, of course the wrong one, but I followed it until I saw a glint of light at the end.

Soon I emerged, but instead of finding myself on the familiar ground about half a mile from the tent, I was standing on the top of a pleasant grassy slope going down with a gentle incline to a small lake, fed by the stream into which I had fallen, which gurgled out into a little waterfall to my left.

About ten miles across this valley the real mountains extended in a vast unbroken line as far as I could see.

Then I understood that I must have gone right through the mountain, which was no doubt honeycombed by these tunnels. The idea came to me that if I could get back I could lead my master through by this way and save him the painful and slow ascent of the mountain, as he obviously intended to get over to this side.

So, turning, I went back by the path I had come, and I noticed that all the way it sloped upwards, which accounted for the lowness of the far end of the tunnel. As I went I thought it would be a good thing to follow my own tracks backwards and thus find a way out. The rock held the scent very badly, and as I was very used to my own smell I had a lot of trouble in following it.

Presently I came to a place where the paths met, and as I was determined not to go wrong again, I carefully noted all the distinguishing marks of the passage along which I had just come.

Then I cast around for my tracks again, and after finding them I wondered if these might be the ones that led to the stream or not. However, I took the chance, and following them up, I soon discovered that I was wrong again, and I felt quite lost.

After wandering round and round the seemingly endless series of galleries and caves, and several times recrossing my tracks, quite suddenly I found myself at the entrance again.

The time was late afternoon, but I noticed that the sky was dark and I could not see the tent in the gloom which surrounded me.

I began to trot down to where I thought the tent would be about half a mile further, and as I went the sky became darker and I grew alarmed, for though I had been wandering for a long time in the tunnel, it was not nearly night time yet.

Then suddenly the wind rose, and a few flakes of snow fell in my face, and then all at once down came the snow. The wind blew a flurry of snow into my eyes and I was temporarily blinded, so brushing my paw over my face I pushed on.

I could hardly see a yard ahead, and the wind which was blowing into my face howled like an angry wolf, carrying away the sounds which I made to attract my master.

As I had twisted and turned so much in the tunnels I had quite lost my sense of direction which was usually so infallible, so after about twenty minutes struggling with the wind, I found myself at the brink of the precipice, still further from my master.