178 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



was never a drive made that they did not cut 

 down several guinea-fowls, spur-fowls, small 

 antelopes, or hares. Once I sent out a gang of 

 ten porters to find a secretary-bird that I had 

 winged with my rifle, and after chasing it some 

 distance had seen enter a "donga" a mile away. 

 They not only returned with the secretary-bird, 

 but with three hares, two spur-fowls, and a 

 guinea-fowl, all of which they had knocked down 

 with sticks as the game tried to escape. 



But to return to snakes. We were driving 

 a small "donga" bordering a stream in the 

 N'Guasso Nyero country and were having fine 

 luck. First three mongooses came out, but 

 they were so far away that my shots only 

 turned them back into the thicket. Next a 

 dikdik appeared, then a steinbuck, and a few 

 seconds later a flock of spur-fowls. I fired at 

 and wounded one of them, and it settled in the 

 brush under the ten-foot cut bank of the stream. 

 Hoping that the bird would again flush, I sent 

 my gun bearer down to drive it out. I was 

 walking through the tall grass on top of the 

 bank, when, on glancing down, I saw four feet 

 of python, another step and I would have 

 trodden on it. I leaped over it and at the 



