48 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



ama (meat), and, as an African savage thinks 

 more of his stomach than of anything else, they 

 asked me why I did not do as the other masters 

 had done "kill something of value something 

 that people could eat? " 



The first gun bearer assigned me belonged to 

 the Masai tribe, a brave race of people that, as a 

 whole, despises work. This "boy" was an ex- 

 ception to the rule, but he stayed with me just 

 one day. When he found that, instead of shoot- 

 ing lions, leopards, elephants, and "rhinos," his 

 master collected rats and mice, his humiliation 

 was so deep that after the porters had called 

 him Panya (mouse) a few times he could stand 

 it no longer. That night he disappeared and I 

 never saw him again. 



Evidently, our boys African servants, por- 

 ters, and all others are called boys thought that 

 I lacked the courage to attack dangerous game 

 and that I collected small mammals because it 

 was much safer work. And so I lived for several 

 months, despised, jeered at, and known only as 

 Bwana Panya, the mouse master. But sud- 

 denly, within the space of eight short seconds, I 

 retrieved my reputation, and Bwana Panya be- 

 came the hero of the camp. 



