THE ROAN. 397 



outward in the swift, rushing manner of tropic 

 storms ; and I saw I must hustle if I was to 

 get my fire going at all. The first little blaze was 

 easy, and after that I had to pile on quantities 

 of any wood I could lay my hands to. The 

 deluge blotted out every vestige of daylight and 

 nearly drowned out my fire. I had started to 

 help C. with the roan, but soon found that I had 

 my own job cut out for me, and so went back to 

 nursing my blaze. The water descended in 

 sheets. We were immediately soaked through, 

 and very cold. The surface of the ground was 

 steep and covered with loose round rocks, and 

 in my continuous trips for firewood I stumbled 

 and slipped and ran into thorns miserably.* 



After a long interval of this the lanterns came 

 bobbing through the darkness, and a few mo- 

 ments later the dim light revealed the shining 

 rain-soaked faces of our men. 



We wasted no time in the distribution of 

 burdens. C. with one of the lanterns brought up 

 the rear, while I with the other went on ahead. 



Now as Kongoni had but this minute com- 

 pleted the round trip to camp, we concluded that 

 he would be the best one to give us a lead. This 



* Six months after I had reached home, one of these thorns worked 

 its way out of the calf of my leg. 



