WILD LIFE ACROSS THE WORLD 



and one or two other little luxuries, and at the same 

 time to collect our mail. 



I gave Mahomed two rupees to pay for the meat 

 and any mail dues there might be, the other goods 

 going to an account we had opened in Naivasha. He 

 started early in the morning, and should have been 

 back in decent time in the evening. However, it was 

 close on lo.o p.m. when he turned up, and then he 

 was empty-handed. 



Naturally I was angry. He had caused me a good 

 deal of anxiety by being so late, and had aggravated it 

 by the evident failure of his errand. 



I inquired where he had been, the cause of delay 

 and of the absence of stores, and the whereabouts of my 

 rupees. He immediately began to cry, a trick he could 

 do at a moment's notice, and informed me that he 

 had not been to Naivasha at all, but only half-way, 

 where he had met some friends who had invited him 

 to play cards for money. 



All natives are gamblers, and Somalis are princes 

 in that line. Mahomed confessed that he had stopped 

 to gamble, and, what was worse, with my rupees, 

 the result being that they were lost. If I wanted my 

 money back I must cut it out of his pay when we 

 returned to Nairobi. 



I saw if we were to have any confidence in the boy 

 the matter must be dealt with at once, and that fairly 

 severely; but the moment I threatened punishment 



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