134 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
came of an exaggerated sense of loyalty to me, or at 
least that was his excuse. During my absence from 
camp one of my companions asked Bill for some sup- 
plies from a box to which Bill had the keys, but he 
refused to get them, saying that he must have an 
order from his own Bwana. It was cheek, and he 
had to be punished; the punishment was not severe, 
but coming from me it went hard with him and I had 
to give him a fatherly talk to prevent his running 
away. Whenever we reached a Joma, or Nairobi, we 
expected Bill to have a grouch. His irresistible im- 
pulse to spend money and the desire to keep it, too, 
upset him, and going to Nairobi usually meant that 
he would be paid in full and discharged; but the next 
day he would turn up and continue to do his work 
with a long face until he would manage to screw up 
courage to ask if the Bwana would take him on the 
next trip, and then he would be all grins and the 
troubles were over. 
Sometimes in hunting dangerous game I would 
take him along as extra gun-bearer and usually on 
these occasions his marvellous keenness of eye and 
ability to track would result in the regular gun- 
bearers being relegated to the rear. One time while 
hunting elephants in Uganda I let him go with me. 
We had finished inspecting a small herd, decided 
there was nothing in it that I wanted, and were going 
back to take up the trail of another lot in a section 
where the country was all trodden down by the 
going and coming of numerous herds. As we went 
along Bill detected the spoor of two big bulls and 1 
