AN ESCAPE IN THE DARK 



with a bloody ending. With a promise of plenty of cloth 

 on their return, the little bands departed in high spirits. 

 Just before sundown the two boys were brought back to 

 the village, tied neck to neck with grass cords and thongs 

 of bark, and a host of other things. Great tears rolled 

 down their faces and every now and again the natives 

 would prod them with their spears if they lagged behind. 

 How proud the captors were ! Drums were set beating 

 to recall the other parties of seekers. 



With my departure, some of the boys in the safari 

 would be superfluous, and I agreed to take them down 



to Kampala with me. P wanted all the porters 



possible, so I decided to take Salem, Juma, Kalakese, 

 Karetese and Kalalili. On reaching Lonely Hill by the 

 Legworo country, or Monica's rest, as I called it, I would 

 exchange Kalalili for Monica. 



On the seventh morning of our sojourn at Lodo 

 the camp was astir early, getting ready ; for some two 

 hours all was bustle and confusion. The tent was rolled 

 up and every tiling was being packed for the journey. 



Taking farewell of P , the boys, and a large number 



of the villagers who stood by, I gathered my five boys 

 together and we set off down the path. I remember my 

 friend saying, " Keep your eyes open, it is a bad country 

 you are going through." At the time I paid little 

 attention to the warnings of imminent dangers that lay 

 on the road as day followed dav. Sometimes when 

 lying ill with fever, hundreds of miles from the nearest 

 white man, I felt the seriousness of my position. I might 

 be not very far from a village whose inhabitants, had they 

 known that I was sick and unable to raise a hand to 

 defend myself, would have swooped down on us, and the 

 outer world would have been none the wiser. It was 

 with a light heart that, in spite of a system enervated by 

 fever, I set out to walk just on two hundred miles to 

 civilisation, accompanied by only five boys. I would 



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