72 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



while we rattled and swooped and plunged 

 down hill into the darkness. Subsequently we 

 learned that a huge flat beam projecting amid- 

 ships from beneath the seat operated a brake 

 which we above were supposed to manipulate ; 

 but being quite ignorant as to the ethics and 

 mechanics of this strange street-car system, we 

 swung and swayed at times quite breathlessly. 



After about fifteen minutes we began to pick 

 up lights ahead, then to pass dimly-seen garden 

 walls with trees whose brilliant flowers the lan- 

 tern revealed fitfully. At last we made out white 

 stucco houses, and shortly drew up with a 

 flourish before the hotel itself. 



This was a two- story stucco affair, with deep 

 verandas sunken in at each story. It fronted a 

 wide white street facing a public garden ; and 

 this, we subsequently discovered, was about the 

 only clear and open space in all the narrow town. 

 Antelope horns were everywhere hung on the 

 walls ; and teak wood easy- chairs, with rests on 

 which comfortably to elevate your feet above 

 your head, stood all about. We entered a bare, 

 brick-floored dining-room, and partook of tropical 

 fruits quite new to us papayes, mangoes, cus- 

 tard apples, pawpaws, and the small red eating 

 bananas too delicate for export. Overhead the 



