The Ivory Trail

THE GREAT

her, and he pitched

or two of each and

made sea of earth th

talled us till the

f the Pentateuch can

plains of Africa mor

drummed the dust (K

o desert-lick we

people came with tub

and killing, and lea

the hunters were, but w

e dust-clouds up wit

leface people came-scat

y brought the law, and t

e drew a line that

l intent to hunt-cap

eface people be wit

t Noah knew-that a

i Game Reserve-in

s graze who went b

without alarm (Kong

d and lion to watch, a

f

d waterbuck, rhin

eface people be who

ing, for their boastfulness was gone. They came in twos and threes, snarling, only roaring intermittentl

ened I caught sight of Hassan, very much afraid of lions, but obviously more afraid of being seen from the hotel wi

s curious and unoccupied, I slipped

zaar-a short street of corrugated iron buildings-and out the other end. Being fat, he could not run fast, although his wind held out surprisingly. If he saw me at all he

imposing group of tents on the outskirts of the t

for a minute; so I turned my back on him, walked to where a sort of fold in the ground enabled me to get down unseen into a shallow nullah, and went along that at right angles to Hassan's course until I reached the edge of some

on had taught me caution. It had not entered my head that in that country a strange white man without a rifle might have be

he rest were for native servants and porters. The camp was tidy and clean-obviously belonging to some one of importance. Fires were alight. Breakfast was being cooked, and smelled most uncommonly appet

ances favored me. The boys had seen I was carrying a rifle and was therefore a white man of importance, so they did not question my right to approach. The tent with the mule in it and the two store tents were on the right, pitche

swahili. When I heard the German addressed as Bwana Schillingschen I wondered still more, for from all accounts that individual could speak more native tongues than most people knew existed.

s, I will give you money at the right time. Tell me no lies now! There will be letters coming from peo

ne going home-big lord gentleman, h

r tongue softly enough, but in common with a host of other people he see

d he go

t know,

hey qu

g word In Africa, except perhaps bado kidogo, which m

dare say 's

Tippoo Tib one time his house-she wanting maybe go with him to London. He saying no. Others say

he to do

Byumby Tippoo Tib hearing bazaar talk an' sending me along too. She refuse to take me, all because German consul man knowing me formerly and not making good report, but G

the German voice. It was the voice of a man very used to questioning

ap. Map having

o you

go in their bedroom, s

see her

, bw

ee the mar

bwa

marks were on it? Now, r

o map-no money-no anything in here.' An' Lady Saffunwardo she very angry an' say, 'Come out o' there! Let me look!' And Lady Saffunwardo going in, but maid not coming out, an' they both search. Then Lady Saffanwardo saying all at once, 'Here it is. Didn't you see th

t did she

uj

t to dare say

w, bwana, what sh

you ste

bwa

y n

n! No man daring steal fro

a hundred rupees c

i, bw

not to use

ana

you ste

ay

is no

ain about hu

es if you bring me that map and

y. Hundred rupees

t map and bring it here, and I shall give you a hundred rupees. Fail, and you shall have a hundred lashes, and what Ahmed and Abdullah and

bwa

and get

then? She very gali*

-cruel, hard, f

here to me. Then I've other work for

, no! Never! I

Go and tell all the tribes in British territory that the Germans are coming soon to

na. How m

en you bring the

se to confess myself an eavesdropper it became my business to be in the tent ahead of them. So I strode forward

us in Zanzibar-big dark man, sitting in the doorway of a tent all hung with guns, skins and an

g shot at something-had no luck-got nothing-saw your tents in t

o I had to remain standing. I told him my name, hoping that Hassan had either not done so already, or else that he might

them dragged a chair from inside the tent for me. I sat d

o refuse an invitation to eat, but interest

he asked, looking up at me darkly u

rever I go," I answer

ded, holding out a foot for h

epends,

wh

r I get em

is head, throwing the helmet to the ground, and sat like a great hairy gorilla for the boy to hang day-clothes on hi

resently, beginning to eat before

b that would take me up and down the length and

eying me keenly. "I have a German, but I need

ely a

e nodded approva

raphical particulars, but they get into a village and sit down for whole weeks at a time,

erstand the government is not in favor

have been accorded facilities because of my professi

id. "No re

p him, but on the contrar

are too frequently evidenc

quently) be used the napkin more as a shield behind which to take stock of me than as a means of getting clean again. By the time his breakfast was finished his be

nto the basin of warm water his boy had brought. "Where did you get that r

that might have started him on a string of questions as to

ught it f

answer!" h

y and there and then learned more of his purpose. But I was not prepossessed by his charms or respectful of his claim to superiority. The

answer you'l

license for i

began to

r business!"

e you been in

I came,

ing. A lucky thing you came to my camp and not to

giving him very careful directions in a language

"tried to excuse himself before the magistrate by claiming ignorance of th

evere!"

good you came first to me. You would better stand that rifle over here in the corner

ger chances tha

so serious," he said, disappearing behin

when four of his boys approached the tent from behind, and one of them cried "Hod

e gloomy interior and stared at it. He asked them questions ra

d me, stroking his great beard

y lie!" I

said, reaching out an enormo

e clip in the magazine and claim afterward that I had fired it away. Evidently he proposed to get me in his powe

he buck, did

ives say they s

it's

nod

aid, "but I expec

more than a hundred pounds, but the African climate had not had time

"You gave me something to eat after

prevent my carry

ake responsibility for that buck and save you

d them with my butt end. He brought his own rifle out and threatened me with that. I laughed at him, bade him

r being late for breakfast, and told me I was lucky to get any. Fred and Will had waited for me, and while we ate alone and

hanging outside the

it," I said. "I've been ac

court sits at nine. You'd bette

e charge of carrying an unregistered rifle and shooting game without a license. Two native policemen he

urt-house, feeling as if we were going to a play-perhaps a mite indignant, as if the sub

two other natives were there, as well as several English offici

s of a hostile crowd I heard one offi

't every new arrival in this country will try to take t

as he passed it to me. For the moment I think he thought I

s garbage heap before noon. Three natives were ordered to the chain-gang for a week for fighting, and a Masai charged wi

e had entered the hotel, found me at breakfast, and that I had not denied having shot the buck. He called his two colored askaris to prove that, and they reeled off what they had to say with th

rifle, and I put two and two together and concluded he had shot something. Not having seen him ever before, and he standing before my tent, I asked him his name. He refused to tell me, and that made me suspicious. Then came my four boys

eir words identical. If the interpreter spoke truth one account did not vary from the next in the

ew. He said he recognized the mark on the butt where the varnish had been chafed away. Then I handed the hunting knife I had borrowed from to the police officer and demanded that he have the bullet cut out of the buck's carcass. The court could not object to that, so under the eye

d that you did not shoot this particular buck, unless th

ad no evidence along that line, s

rate, "with carrying an unregistered r

e of registration and the big game

y so before?" dema

t asked,

ped his honor, and the

itedly. "That Heinie and his boys have al

o the poli

se witnesses with

the law against perjury was strictly enforced the jails

rascal Schillingschen understands!" s

to do," he answered.

strate h

official in this

t man in the white suit with the r

two minutes after the man himself. The Goanese clerk had been i

in the court, not here

ugh, and the collector greeted us without obv

o tell you about that man

mean Professor

tos of feminine relations and a little house in a dreary Midland street on his desk, and was no doubt loyal to the light he saw. I wished we had M

ory from the moment I started to follow Hassan

d, schemer. He's planning to upset British rule in this

came to us here with the most influential backing-letter of introduction from very exalted personages, I assure you! Profes

d. "You were there. You heard his evidence abso

ady Isobel Saffren Waldon is staying-or rather, I should say, was staying at the hotel. She is now staying at my house. She complains to me of very rude treatment at the hands of you three men-insolent treatment I should call it! I can assu

et off the sidewalk for a black woman, and would neither tell nor laugh at the sort of stories that pass current about women in some smoking-rooms. His hair bri

Jane will use everything you've got except the squeal! Great suffering Jemima! Your title is collector, is it? Do you collect bugs by any cha

his chair and sneering. "Behave yourselves! Thi

side. "Suppose we give him a few days to learn the fact

like my meals. I like three squares a day, and tobacco, and now and then a drink.

ldn't be accepting favors

t tell him

ion it would be hopeless to get away northward. Southward into German East seemed the only way to go; there was apparently no law against travel in

n permit, and permission to go where he damned well plea

aldon's influence was already strong enough for that. He did not ask for leave to go anywhere

his left ear missing-without any of the brass or iron wire ornaments that most of the natives of the land affect, but possessed of a Harris tweed shooting jacket

ring good news. We took the letter from him, told him to wait, and went on in.

because he could make me comfortable for the remainder of a week. So, as there happened to be ae special train going up I begged leave for him to ride in the caboose. He is a splendid gun-bearer

me. I was not looking for buried ivory, but he kn

all good luck

Cour

new horse apiece. We were for dashing out to

id about a dog?" he aske

hat's how they come to be ex! You'll find them in the littl

etter gambl

it, Am

on in and hav

black man-to give him a hint that he was welcome. But it is a fatal mis

im over, using one of the six dozen Swahili w

r in all natives worth employing; and followed me indoors. Will and F

ur name?" d

zim

' Let us hope you live up to it. Your f

ana? My spir

u want

es

ney do you e

ij

cut in, remembering S

e said promptly. Posho means rati

rself?" suggested Fred with

all told!" Will whisper

red. "My spirit is good. I am strong. Ther

man," answered Fred. "Hav

you lik

es

you a

rel

ch of us would you

red promptly, p

rank indiscretion. It never pays to seem curious about a native's personal reasons, and it was many week

e Fred's bed after a mysterious fashion of his own, taking one of my new blankets and one of Will's in exchange for Fred's old ones-cleaned Fred's guns thoroughly after carefully abstracting the oil and waste from our gun-cases and transferring the

ey following of about twenty, arrayed in blankets of eve

he announced. "These

inning has to do with cooking is more than anybody knows." The man, whose name was Juma, turned out to be an execrable cook, but as he never left off grinning un

Malindi boy named Tengeneza (and that means arrange in order, fix, make over, manage, mend-no end of an ominous name!). They were both outclassed from the start by Kazimoto, but to add to the handicap he insisted that since he was a headman he would need some one to help look after Fred

and a Goanese railway clerk. We had left our tents and heavy baggage checked at the station, but had said nothing about them to our new headman; how

demand

o. "No place for boys. Heap too many pl

, and then and there p

run by a Goanese in the bazaar, came lurching past the township camping ground, and viewed Kazimoto wi

d examined him narrowly as to his knowledge of German East and ways of getting there. He was in an aggrava

inal word on the matter. "I'll put you

and beg leave to ride on that, for as yet, no passenger trains were running regularly on the western section of the line. But there was no

e agreed to go with him "some of the way," and Fred spent the whole of that morning in the bazaar buying loads of food and g

ll; loads have been apportioned and porters broken in to some extent; you have broken the spell of inertia, and hereafter there is less likely

s had been too much for him and I found him with a straw in the neck of a bottle of whisky alte

ou. Simply because I am goin' to tell! I'm mum, I am! When s'mother gents an' me 'ave business, that's our business-see! None o' your business-'ss

ition when he could not have been moved except on stretcher, and was momentarily edging closer to an admission of all he knew

we made a hammock for him out of a blanket tied to a pole, and made him over to two porters with the promise that they would get no supper if they lost him. Then we s

railway threaded over the wide high table-land before dipping downward to Victoria Nyanza. On our left front was all K

tation. Most of the scrub thereabouts was castor oil plant, that makes very poor fuel; yet th

d a thing called a kiboko-a whip of hippopotamus-hide a yard and a half long, and with the aid of that and Will's good humor we constitu

ess in a way to terrify the very night itself. Fred played concertina nearly all night long, and when dawn came, th

carelessness that brought no ill results, and partly from observation we learned that where game is plentiful lions are more curious than dang

settler at Kikuyu-leopards are likely to be more troublesome than lions. The le

from him, locked up with our own, sent him ahead in the hammock, and let him work as guide by

ts my stomach

was never a day that we were once out of sight of game from dawn to dark. When we awoke the morning mist would scatter slowly and betray sleepy herds of antelope, that would rise leisurely, stand staring at us, suddenly become

e early morning, preferring to stalk warier game at the end of a long march. The rains were a thing of the past, and we

secondary matters; that railway's one purpose was to establish occupation of the head waters of the Nile and refute the German claim to prior rights there. At irregular intervals trains already went down to the lake, and passengers might

me gave him a sense of responsibility. His own reason for pre

o' your peccadillos. Ask too often, and one day when you really need a kindness you'll find the Bank o' Good Hope b

land, between forests of cedar-perfect country,

my place," said Brown, "by the

e. All he heard was the dog's yelp, and all he saw was a flash of yellow as the leopard made for the boulders close at hand. The other was taken out of my tent. I had tie

eep pigeons, 'cause the leopards take them too. I sent to England for fancy pigeons-a dozen of em. Leopards got all but one, so I put him in the loft above my own house, where it seemed to me 'tweren't possible for a leopard to get, supposin' he'd dared. Went away the next day for some s

es to settlers out of the depths of its wisdom an' generosity-climbed up by the same route the leopard took-invaded him

on your farm, the

leopards

t th

farmin' out your cattle among the natives that beats keepin' 'em yourself. The nati

ntented. I keep a herd o' two hundred cows in a native village not far fro

tiny homestead we heard a lot of

n takin' a day off aft

r of a man who ca

wo or three hours, but although we heard rifle firing repeatedly we did not once catch sight of smoke or men. We march

as invaded by leopards, or perhaps lions. Yet at dawn there were no signs of tents. And whe

fireplace at one end of the living-room, and a chimney that Brown had built him

day we shot enough meat for the camp, and at night we sat over the log fire, praying that Brown might sober up, Fred singing songs to his infernal concertina, and al

was Kazimoto who came running in breathless one night just as Brown was at last sobering up, with the news that some Greeks had swo

the bottle of whisky he had just brought u

swore he was after you chaps-swore he didn't care nothing about me! What he did to you was none o' my business, o' course-an' I figured anyway as you could look out for yourselves! Not that

ecently drunk. While he cleaned and oiled be gave orders to his own boys; and what with having servants of our own an

ing weapons, for the second time that evening. (It is religion with the true hunter never to eat supper un

cattle, an' the cattle'll have to eat. Maybe they'll drive 'em all through the first night, and on into the next day; but after that they'll have to rest 'em an' graze 'em a while. That's when we'll

se to go alone afte

hose cattle

y disposed to

he herd all legal an' proper-an' then they'll chase the Greeks back to British East for punishment same as they always do. What good 'ud that be to me? No, no! Me-I'm going to catch 'em this side o' the line, or else bu'st-an' I won't be too partic'lar where the lin

ld no more permit him to go alone than he would consider abandoning his cattle. Then we had to decide who should follow

very thought of it that Fred assured him the proposal was intended for a joke. Then we argued among ourselves, coaxed, blarne

rest cedars, and laughed at Fred marshaling the sleepy porters by lamplight in the open space between the house and barn. He was to follow as fast as the loaded porters could be made to travel,

d. "Make the most of it or I'll neve

them in such close sequence that the whole was a nightmare without

frankly to the whisky that had muddled him. Even Kazimoto, who had passed that way three times, did not know for certain. So I went forward to scout-st

re than thirty feet above my head. I started to dig my way out, but the crumbling sides fell in and threatened to bury me alive unless I kept still. So I shouted until my lungs ached

several shots when I did think of it; but we had agreed on no system of signals, and instead of coming to find me at once, the other two cursed me for wasting time shooting at leopards in the dark instead of

swarm up, and at the end of that time, when I stood on firm ground at last and wipe

ile unless driven furiously.) Will came on a leopard devouring its kill, a fat buck, in the midst of the track in the moonlight, and the brute resented the interruption of his meal. It slunk into the shadows before Will could get a shot at it, and for the next t

shadows, and Brown went through all the stages from simple nervousness to fear, and then to fren

s doing more damage than his teeth. I shot him by thrusting my rifle into his ear, and although that dropped him instantl

o attend to the man's wounds properly by lamp and moonlight, and after

ry the injured porter to a mission station more than a day's march away, and redistributed the loads. Then we went on again, on

ds and perambulators, and

arcass of a heifer that the Greeks had shot, presumably because it could not march, and perhaps with the

or the Greek marauders were bent on speed and the driven cattle had smashed dow

covery of hoof-prints of either mules or horses. I was marching alone in advance, and came on them beside a stream that w

ough to buy mules for himse

Saffren Waldon refused him tobacco money

be steal mule

e. Aren

es' t

take horses.

they rid

he must ha' bought mules from the one man who has any to sell. And he lives t'other side o' Nairobi. There are none between there and here-none whatever. Za

them with her mo

illingschen

bar's" said Will, "or t

ey, conspire at great expense a

fter. If that's how they work it out, then they wouldn't need think much to conclude that putting Brown on the blink would hoodoo us. Maybe they allow that that much bad luck t

ody and proceeded to play ball with it, tossing it and tearing it to pieces until at last Will got a chance for a shoulder shot and drilled him neatly. Two other bulls took to fighting in the midst of the

only escaped after an hour's struggle during which we all but lost two porters. We had to retrace our steps and follow the Greek's r

d to advice about nursemaids, we dispensed with sleep altogeth

hold twice our number, and that he could take us over easily in the dark. In fact he swore he had ferried twice our number over on darker nights more than twenty or thirty times. He also said that he had taken the cattle over

ot grass-papyrus mostly-that divided the river into narrow streams and afforded protection to the most s

ee inches of our uneven gunwale proved that we were more or less in the main stream. We had enjoyed that sensation for about a minute, and were headed toward wh

at fat back made a wave that ended that voyage abruptly. Our three inches of broadside

spitting dirty water, "here's where the croc

furious and unafraid; and the three of us pulled out the porters and the fatuous boat's owner. The pole was floating near by, and I swam down-s

as ballast. Will took the pole and acted the part of Charon, our proper pilot contenting himself with perching on th

like you in the other

l die of

g found the muddy bank at last (and more trillions of mosquitoes) we had to drag the overturned boat out high and dry to rescue our be

d to "chance it" as cheerfully and swiftly as we could, and at the end of a half-hour's slimy t

l the blood ran down from us-lost (for we had no notion where the end of the ford might be)-at the mercy of any prowling bea

own to the river again and washed our rifles. Then we dried and oiled them, and without a word of bargain or explanation, invaded the cleanest looking hut, lay down on the stam

ixty porters dropped their burdens inside the village stockade. He had scorned the ferry and crossed the ford on f

d. "Wake up! Shake off the fleas and

nly canoe (who claimed double pay on the ground that we had lost no loads in spite of o

never saw before, you scouts!-you ad

, where they wrestled, trying to throw each other in, until bot

" gasp

d from where we stood we could see more than half a mile of alluvial mud with an arm of the riv

it is?" F

ed like burned lime, or else the secretions of about

e eggs!"

wn out of curiosity agreed, so we took the absurd canoe and poled down to investigate. As w

s emerging, that made straight for the water. What worse monster preyed on them to keep their numbers down, or what disease took care of their prolixity we could not guess. Perhaps

vening; for it began to be obvious that the speed had been telling on the cattle. We passed two more dead heifers w

food for men would be purchaseable, and the number of villages closely spaced would make the task of night-herding vastly easier. There isn't a village in that par

d on the map the part where we were was set down as "unexplored," although that was scarcely accurate; the route was well en

, and Kazimoto ran ahead of us to the summit. We saw him standing at gaze for three or four minutes with one

-chini-mba-a-a-li sana!"-(They're

hat would be a holocaust in the dry season when the heat set fire to the grass, and was an insect-haunted marsh at most other times. However, path across it there must be, for the Greeks had driven Brown's cat

ze with the wind-blown motion of the rest. I pointed it out to the ot

re's no feed for cattle on all this plain. They're racing to get to

new the Greeks to be. And for the second time we fell into a bog, nearly losing our lives in it. We had to pull one another out, using

at was not so easy as it reads, because the trampled grass had risen again,

es seemed to greet us as their only prospect of food that year. The monotony of hurrying through grass-stems that cut off al

keep mosquitoes at bay, and an hour after dawn, reaching rising g

pitched. We could see their mules, like brown insects, tied under a tr

Irish whisky, and we'll have a spree at Lumbwa that'll make the fall of Rome sound like a Sunday-school picnic! We're in German territory now, all right. There's not a white man for a hundred

rk, if that's what you m

ared har

u'll object to

attle thieves in the States. I said t

nd come on them fresh in

d Brown. "Why d'y

"When we get a bit closer we'l

aid I. "Tell me

g place very wisely from the point of view of men unwilling to be taken by surprise. Far away over to our right, appearing and disappearing as I watche

" explod

n!" add

id I. "Black me

citedly. He had far the k

feats and bravery of the Masai, who alone of all tribes did not fear the Arabs, and

eaning that the development was very

tle as Masai can. They can take leg-weary beasts by the tail and make them gallop, one beast encouraging the next until they all go like the wind. For food they drink hot blood, opening a vein in a beast's neck and closin

erman forces. There were probably no Germans within a hundred miles. There was no telegraph in all those parts. To notify Muanza by runner and Bagamoyo on the coast from there by wire

such agreement for reasons best known to themselves. The fact that they were far the heaviest losers by the lack of reciprocal police arrangeme

sai using spear and ki

ne. It has kept those rascals from owning rifles! But lor

to his rifle. S

lose 'em I'm minded to die anyhow. There's nothing in life for a drunkard like me with all his money gone and

d dryly. "I've a hundre

ht to be

I saw two things happen. First, the Masai became aware of the little Greek encampment and the t

round up the cattle. The tents began to come down, and I saw three figures t

ll, "I begin to see th

the Greeks or of the Ma

own's cattle, or help t

your cattle all

ng well bet

enough to al

rd o' thei

them to British East, if you ca

ion of 'em-all on hand to swear they bought 'em from me; an' the British gov'ment ta

th 'em," argued Will, "you've

-even against Greeks!" Brown an

cattle before they can leave them to raid a new lot. We can open fire at long range to begin with. If that scares the Greeks away, then we can ro

ughed cy

Greeks don't run pretty quick they'l

unds of ammunition each, and gave the rest to Kazimoto to carry, with orders to ke

one of which drove the cattle forward and the other diverged to study the attack, we ducked down under a ridg

r, the Greeks' boys were losing no time about rounding up the cattle. By the time t

to gasp for his third or fourth wind, "the Masai'll catch 'em sure, an' we

hen Brown's prayer was answered. The Greeks' boys decided the matter for them by stampeding the herd northward toward us. They did not come fast. They were lame, and bone-weary from

left!" Brown shouted.

in the center, and short-wind

e run!" I said. "They

s together, and have

heir tent and belo

n, with such disappointme

my hands! I'll have revenge on 'em if it takes the

They're smoking this way in two single columns of about twenty spears in each. The remaind

ard action. Let the cattle through, and open fire behind 'em! Send that Kazimoto o

own in a hollow behind us with cartridges in either fist and a grin on his face that would have done credi

de from the hair of the colobus monkey, a leather apron hung on just as suited the individual wearer's fancy, a great shield, and an enormous ostrich-feather head-dress. They seemed

herd them northward. They halted to hold consultation-apparently decided that t

d Brown, when they were sti

d. "An unexpected volley at close quarters will

"As for unexpected-just watch me startle 'e

lead and blaze away for all we were worth. If Brown had been willing to accept Will's advice there is nothing more likely than that the close-quarter surprise would have won the day f

there were only three of us. Their leader shouted. The right-hand column continued to attack, but chang

f the crowd attacking us. This left perhaps fourteen against us, to be dealt w

e man shouted and they all lay prone, beginning to crawl toward us with their shields held before, not as protection a

hance to protect the other two should they feel forced to retire. The extra height also gave me a distinct advantage, for I could see the

he certainly lived up to all Courtney had said of him, for without the stimulus of his proper master's e

hichever side they attacked. But in turning to keep an eye on the flank I became aware of a greater danger. The cattle were coming back. That meant that the other Masai

of action our cause was likely lost. I stood up to look for him and heard a wild cheer, followed by three more shots in quick succession. Then at last I saw Fred Oakes running along a depression in the ground, followed at a c

n the rear, but I yelled again, and this time made myself heard. Those who had got behind the cattle and were driving them were coming on with spears and shields raised to slay us in passing. The other two joined me, and we stood

, rolled on top, wrenched his wrist free, and in another second grinned in my face as, with both knees in my stomach, he raised the spear to kill. I shut my eyes. I had not another breath left, nor an effort in me, I thought I would deny him the pleasure of watching my death agony. But I could not keep my eyes sh

eing rapidly out-distanced. Cattle are all the Masai care about. They had the cattle. They had hold of tails and were making the whole herd scamper due east, where they no doubt knew of a trail not in ma

ed, for the butt of my rifle was broken clean off

let the brutes get

elf when I came up, but i

man. We'll follow 'em

e back, never fear.

ither agreeable nor decent to watch, and I turned away. I was feeling sick myself from the pressure of the Masai's knees in my stomach. That, and the sun, and the long march, and hunger (for we had not s

lie on those. I hurried, for I was feeling deathly sick now. As I reached t

ulders gave the sudden forward lurch, a wounded Masai jumped out of the rushes and d

s rifle barked at the same second and he fell over side

gruesome news that the spear-blade was almost surely poisoned-dipped in gangre

had been forced into his system. Kazimoto grew indignant, and offered to prove the truth of his claim on some animal. But ther

minutes!"

on again and again from each one of us, making me especially repeat my words. Then he gathered stems of grass a third of an inch thick from the bed of the ti

shed me from behind, and before I could struggle, or even swear, had me pinned out on my back on the ground. One sat on my head; one on my

nto the open spear-wound. I could not cry out, because of the man sitting on my face, but I could bite. And to the everlasting glory o

too intense to permit interest in anything but agony. They had my leg bandaged, how and with what I neither knew nor cared. And it was evident that unless they chose to leave me in

hey probably feared the sort of mercy from us that they habitually gave to their own enemies, and crawled away-in a

where, and that German East being our immediate destination anyway, the best course to take was forward, roughly south by west. So I was slung in a blanket on a tent-pole, a

e we came to, where our porters all quartered themselves with the villagers for sake of the change from their crowded tents, the fires that we made went out, and five lions (we counted their foot-pri

natural provision, twenty-foot pythons swung among them, in coloring and marking aping the habit of the tree. One of them knocked Fred's helmet off as he marched be

d of their nose is as hard as iron, and they strike a terrific blow with that, so swift that the eye can not fo

destitute paupers, taxed until their wits failed them in the effort to scrape together surplus enough out of which to pay-were supplied with a mockery of a crown apiece, a thing of brass and imitation plush that

had any they brought it, not daring to refuse for fear lest a German sergeant-major

osed to our most reluctant gaze. There was little we could do for them. Our own supply of medicines and bandages was almost too small for our own needs to begin with. By the

ything for you?" we dema

was alway

a!" (The Germ

and it looked as if there might be some profit at last, the Masai came and raided them, taking away all but the very old

months before and had thrown his rifle away. Since that day no one had dared touch it, and they begged us to send back and lay it where we found it, lest the G

ys cheerful in spite of everything, Will more angry at each village with its dirt and so

llage and rode it to the next; but a cow is a poor mount and takes as a rule unkindly to the business. Now and then I tried to walk for a while,

Ukereweto to northward in the distance. From where we first glimpsed it it was a tidy, tree-shaded, plea

e Monty at las

nd wash and write

t for a doc

and Kazimoto wore a lo