THE ROAN 



than to change your mind once you have made it 

 up. That way vacillation, confusion, and disaster 

 lie. Should you decide, after due consideration of 

 all the elements of the problem, that you should go 

 east; then east you go, and nothing must turn you. 

 You may get to the Atlantic Ocean if nothing else. 

 And if you begin to modify your original plan, then 

 you begin to circle. Believe me; I know. 



Kongoni was plainly skeptical, and said so until 

 I shut him up with some rather peremptory sarcasm. 

 The bearers, who had to stumble in the dark under 

 heavy burdens, were good-natured and joking. This 

 we appreciated. One can never tell whether or 

 not he is popular with a native until he and the 

 native are caught in a dangerous or disagreeable fix. 



We walked two hours as in a treadmill. Then 

 that invaluable, though erratic, sixth sense of mine 

 awoke. I stopped short. 



" I believe we've come far enough," I shouted back 

 to Cuninghame and fired my rifle. 



We received an almost immediate answer from a 

 short distance to the left. Not over two hundred 

 yards in that direction we met our camp men bearing 

 torches, and so were escorted in triumph after a 

 sixteen-hour day. 



365 



