XII 



THE FIRE 



WE WERE very tired, so we turned in early. 

 Unfortunately our rooms were immediately 

 over the billiard room where a bibulous and cosmo- 

 politan lot were earnestly endeavouring to bolster 

 up by further proof the fiction that a white man 

 cannot retain his health in the tropics. The process 

 was pretty rackety, and while it could not keep us 

 awake, it prevented us from falling thoroughly 

 asleep. At length, and suddenly, the props of noise 

 fell away from me, and I sank into a grateful, pro- 

 found abyss. 



Almost at once, however, I was dragged back to 

 consciousness. Mohamet stood at my bedside. 



"Bwana," he proffered to my rather angry in- 

 quiry, "all the people have gone to the fire. It is a 

 very large fire. I thought you would like to see it." 



I glanced out of the window at the reddening sky, 

 thrust my feet into a pair of slippers and went forth 

 in my pajamas to see what I could see. 



We threaded our way through many narrow dark 



104 



