150 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
he could not learn to do such work for me. His 
proposal was that he act as my agent, sending food 
and other supplies to us in the field as they were 
required and thus obviating the necessity of my com- 
ing in whenever a consignment of skins was made. 
As time is precious in the field and one does not often 
happen upon a helper of such ingenuity and diligence, 
we soon came to terms. Newland, Tarlton, and 
Company had acquired their first safari client. Later 
on we provided poison tanks and the other para- 
phernalia necessary in caring for trophies before they 
can be shipped. Since that time, Newland and 
Tarlton have prepared skins and packed and shipped 
them for innumerable safaris. 
When in 1911 black-water fever so nearly got me, 
Tarlton was also thought to be dying in the Nairobi 
hospital, but he, too, surprised his friends by his un- 
willingness to conform to their expectations, and, 
while we were both convalescing, invited me to his 
house to stay. Those weeks in Nairobi were a great 
time for reminiscence. Tarlton told me a story 
every morning before breakfast as he whistled and 
chirped about his dressing. And he always ended 
with the assertion that some day he was going to 
write a book on that particular subject. One morn- 
ing he recited an anecdote about Theodore Roosevelt, 
adding, ““Some day I am going to write a book on 
“Ex-Presidents I Have Known’.” 
But the story I recall with the keenest relish re- 
counts the adventures of three Boer War veterans. 
They had reached the bottom of their luck after the 
