THE LOST SAFARI. 267 



and mortifying to find we had camped almost 

 within sight of our destination ! 



The heat was very bad and the force of the sun 

 terrific. It seemed to possess actual physical 

 weight, and to press us down from above. We 

 filled our canteens many times at the swift- 

 running stream, and emptied them as often. By 

 two o'clock F. was getting a little wobbly from 

 the sun. We talked of stopping, when an un- 

 expected thunder shower rolled out from behind 

 the mountains, and speedily overcast the entire 

 heavens. This shadow relieved the stress. F., 

 much revived, insisted that we proceed. So 

 we marched and passed many more hills. 



In the meantime it began to rain, after the 

 whole-hearted tropical fashion. In two minutes 

 we were drenched to the skin. I kept my 

 matches and notebook dry by placing them in 

 the crown of my cork helmet. After the intense 

 heat this tepid downpour seemed to us delicious. 



And then, quite unexpectedly, of course, we 

 came around a bend to make out through the 

 sheets of rain the steel girders of the famous 

 Tsavo bridge.* 



We clambered up a steep, slippery bank to the 



* This is the point at which construction vi&a stopped by man- 

 eating lions. See Patterson's " The Man-eaters of Tsavo," 



