cross ; but to our surprise Tsetse, the strong-nerved 

 and reliable, who always had the post of honour in 

 front, absolutely refused to enter. 



The water of the Crocodile is at its best of amber 

 clearness and we could not see bottom, but the sloping 

 grassy bank promised well enough and no hint reached 

 us of what the horses knew quite well. All we had 

 was on our horses food, blankets, billy, rifles and 

 ammunition. We were off on a long trip and, to vary 

 or supplement the game diet, carried a small packet 

 of tea, a little sugar, flour, and salt, and some beads with 

 which to trade for native fowls and thick milk ; the 

 guns had to do the rest. Thus there were certain 

 things we could not afford to wet, and these we used 

 to wrap up in a mackintosh and carry high when it 

 came to swimming, but this crossing looked so easy 

 that it seemed sufficient to raise the packs instead of 

 carrying part of them. ; j ,^ 



Tsetse, who in the ordinary way regarded the spur 

 as part of the accepted discipline, promptly resented 

 it when there seemed to him to be sufficient reason ; 

 and when Hall, astonished at Tsetse's unexpected 

 obstinacy, gave him both heels, the old horse consider- 

 ately swung round away from the river, and with a 

 couple of neatly executed bucks shot his encumbered ? 

 rider off the raised pack, yards away on to the soft ^ 

 grass water-bottle, rifle, bandolier and man landing 

 in a lovely tangle. 



I then put old Snowball at it, fully expecting 

 trouble ; but the old soldier was quite at 

 home; he walked quietly to the edge 

 3 1 3 \\mrammM\Mi\ 



