py CES: ADVENTURE 285 
horsemanship. The day began badly for him. He brought up 
my mule as usual and stood on the off side while I mounted. 
The saddle had a lumpy look about it, and for an instant 
I hesitated to mount. It was well I did so, for on looking 
over to his side I missed my off stirrup. Sure enough, he 
had actually saddled the mule and girthed him tight, with 
the off stirrup securely fastened down on the unfortunate 
beast’s back, under the seat of my saddle! 
I have seen a mischievous boy, in the South, put a 
hickory nut under the saddle of a skittish Virginian mare, 
and when the rider, a good one, mounted there was a circus 
indeed. I don’t fancy my mule could have emulated that 
Virginian horse though he can buck reasonably well on 
occasions, but as we were surrounded by tent ropes and 
all the paraphernalia of a camp, there would have been some 
grief had I mounted. However the danger was averted, 
the syce rebuked, and I[ rode off from camp. 
After going for an hour or so we cut the spoor of a family 
of lions returning from the night hunt. The head of that 
family was plainly a very big one, judging by his “‘sign.” 
It had poured the night before, so tracking was possible 
even on the hard ground. I determined to follow the trail 
though the chance of getting a shot was small, the country 
being quite open when it was open; and densely, imper- 
ivously bushy when the cactus jungle skirted the Quasi 
Nyiro. 
The lions made their usual semi-circle round and finally, 
as I feared they would, led me into the great belt of cactus 
scrub that bordered the river. Here all manner of known 
and unknown vegetable barriers combined to bar the way; 
thorns long and short, creeping trailers thin and thick and 
all of them unbreakable. Here the dark places in the 
dense thicket were tunnelled by heavy beasts forcing their 
way through. Yet these tunnels would be strung across by 
creepers innumerable, and were so low that you could not 
