BRITISH EAST AFRICA 171 



When I left, the secretary was rather worried 

 about his library, as three hundred and sixty volumes 

 were mysteriously missing. Three hundred and fifty- 

 nine were unaccounted for, the three hundred and 

 sixtieth having been traced to the interior of an 

 exuberant lion cub with literary tastes ! For a week 

 we stayed here, getting things fixed up, &c., then, one 

 afternoon we said farewell to certain charming ladies 

 and set off in the wake of our safari. They had 

 started some hours previously and were supposed to 

 camp before we caught them up. Noah, as our head- 

 man was christened, was plucky, like all Somalis ; but 

 he lacked the administrative capacity of his name- 

 sake. Having allowed the porters to go on whilst he 

 bought a sheep, the position of affairs about 5.30 

 that afternoon was somewhat complicated. We had 

 intended reaching Nyeri by a short cut (nearly always 

 a fallacy !) through the Kikuyu country instead of 

 going round by Fort Hall. The porters lost the short 

 cut ; the headman lost his head and the porters ; 

 whilst the syce and an askari, who were supposed to 

 show us the way, lost everything, including a pony, 

 us, and themselves. We returned to Nairobi, having 

 thoroughly grasped this latter fact, about eight o'clock 

 at night. The lost ones were located about three 

 miles from the town, and thither we went, late as it 

 was, in order to get a good start the next morning. 



I will not weary the reader with an account of 

 the next eight days. My only advice is, if you want to 

 get to Nyeri go by Fort Hall. The short cut is a snare 



