We went on half-a-mile farther across the valley to a point where the commissariat had collected a dépôt of grain. Here the mules were unloaded, fed and watered, and the troops had breakfast, while strong fatigue-parties of the Beloochees, Punjaubees, and 4th went up the hill to work upon the road, under the direction of Captains Goodfellow and Lemessurier of the Engineers. In three hours afterwards the signallers on the top of the hill waved us word that the road was passable, and we started for a climb of a clear two thousand five hundred feet. It was hard work, but the road was surprisingly free from difficulties or dangers until we reached within two or three hundred feet of the top. Then there were some exceedingly nasty bits, but upon the whole it was nothing like what we had anticipated, and not to be compared to many places we have before passed. As we reached the top, Colonel Cameron called upon the 4th for three cheers, telling them that thrashing Theodore would be nothing to the task of climbing that hill. The men responded heartily but feebly; breath, not inclination, being wanting. They then marched cheerily on across a plateau level for another mile, in high spirits at the brush they were looking forward to with Theodore. We soon found, as I had imagined that we should do, that this anticipation was destined for the present to be disappointed. Munzinger was not missing, and never had been. He had gone out for a ride, and his servant said, on being questioned, that he did not know where he was. Theodore had not crossed, and apparently had not the least idea of crossing the Bachelo, but was still making every effort to get his guns into Magdala.