SYCE'S ADVENTURE 291 



bullet to shoot buffalo with was the solid, not the soft nose. 

 Of course he was quite wrong, the soft nose bullet being 

 much the deadlier on such soft-skinned game. He had his 

 orders and he knew them; Kongoni carried as second gun- 

 bearer my heavy .450 and Dooda the .350. When I took the 

 latter, Dooda took over the former, Kongoni handed him 

 the rifle charged as I directed it to be and he, as soon as he 

 received it, took out quietly the soft nose bullets that were in 

 the chamber and substituted solids for them. Thus it 

 came about that contrary to my intention, I fired a solid, not 

 a soft nose bullet into my fine bull, when I had my snap 

 chance at him. 



I thought it strange at the time, when I found by the 

 blood spoor that the bullet had gone quite through, and 

 that there was blood on both sides of the trail that this 

 should have happened -- as a soft nose bullet should never 

 go through a large animal. But it never occurred to me that 

 one of my men would dare to tamper with my guns, as I 

 had had both of them for a long time, and they knew well 

 that if they did so they would be severely punished. When 

 things went wrong, as they did all that long dangerous after- 

 noon, and when hour after hour we crept and crawled in vain 

 after the wounded bull, Dooda made up his mind to hold his 

 tongue. It was only after he had left my employ, he at 

 last confessed to Brownie what he had done. 



That is one of the maddening faults of a Somali. His 

 conceit is insufferable, he thinks he and he alone knows 

 what the occasion demands. His eyes are good, but not so 

 good as those of a Wakamba, a N'dorobo or Massai. His 

 judgment of course is worthless and, though he will seldom 

 desert you, he is apt to become uncontrollably nervous in a 

 really tight place, and fire off his gun. In the old days 

 when none of the East Africa natives were trained gun- 

 bearers, he was often the best thing to be had. To-day he 

 is a mistake. 



