MY SOMALI BOOK 47 



The result was a check of nearl}^ half an hour before 

 the shikaris had disentangled the puzzle and taken up 

 our friend's tracks going away from the place. Herein 

 lay the second piece of bad luck. As soon as our lion 

 had satisfied himself that there were no scraps left he 

 had betaken himself to the nearest shady thorn-tree 

 to put in a late siesta, as there was no point in going 

 any further. The tree he chose, as fate would have 

 it, was only some eighty yards away from where our 

 tracking had been checked at the scene of the old 

 " kill." If we had been able to go straight on we 

 should probably have come upon him before he was 

 awake, but during twenty minutes or so of moving 

 about, and, inevitably, a certain amount of talking 

 close to him, he no doubt became restless, half awake, 

 and then heard us. So when we found the tree growing 

 out of an ant-hill beneath which he had been sleeping, 

 he had moved, now on the look-out for us as he had 

 not been before. That he had only awaked just in 

 time was proved by the fact that we caught a glimpse 

 of him only five minutes later — a tawny mane this 

 time. But he was on the alert, and it was not hot 

 enough to make him lazy, so that at 4 p.m., when he 

 was clearlv on the run, we left him and started back 

 to camp where we arrived soon after seven, having 

 walked about twent3^-two miles and ridden fifteen. 

 Never Avas mulligatawny soup so comforting ! I had 

 only eaten three biscuits since cliota Jiazri of poached 

 eggs and cocoa at 6 a.m. I don't think there is any- 

 thing to beat mulligatawny after a long day of this 

 sort, a fact which the faithful John duly kept in mind. 



The wonderful " bump of locality," as distinguished 



