CHAPTER XV 



DOWN THE NILE : THE GIANT ELAND 



We spent two or three days in Nimule, getting every- 

 thing ready for the march north to Gondokoro. 



By this time Kermit and I had grown really attached 

 to our personal followers, whose devotion to us, and 

 whose zeal for our success and welfare and comfort, had 

 many times been made rather touchingly manifest ; 

 even their shortcomings were merely those of big, 

 naughty children, and, though they occasionally needed 

 discipline, this was rare, whereas the amusement they 

 gave us was unending. When we reached Nimule we 

 were greeted with enthusiasm by Magi, Kermit's Kikuyu 

 sais, who had been in charge of the mules which we did 

 not take into the Lado. INIagi was now acting as sais 

 for me as well as for Kermit, and he came to Kermit to 

 discuss the new dual relationship. " Now I am the sais 

 of the Bwana INIakuba, as well as of you, the Bwana 

 Merodadi " (the Dandy Master, as, for some inscrutable 

 reason, all the men now called Kermit) ; " well, then, 

 you'll both have to take care of me," concluded the 

 ruse Magi. 



Whenever we reached one of these little stations 

 where there was an Indian trading store, we would see 

 that those of our followers who had been specially 

 devoted to us — and this always included all our imme- 



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