THE LAST SEFARI 419 



Up close to the town; one big fellow, while I was there, 

 must have somehow lost his bearings, for he walked over 

 the race course and almost into the large native market near 

 the quarantine line, at two o'clock in the afternoon, and 

 only leisurely departed when the buyers and sellers raised 

 a clamorous outcry. Any one near by with a rifle then 

 had got a lion on easy terms. 



The forest at the back of the town still holds a good 

 deal of game, and the officers of the King's African Rifles 

 can generally get a buck, even when they may not be able 

 to lead the regimental lines for four o'clock in the 

 afternoon. 



Now and then on the outskirts of the town a man- 

 eater makes an appearance. Two Kikuyu were eaten by 

 one not very long ago, and so far as could be learned, a 

 Goanese, looking for guinea fowl, came on the beast in 

 some thick scrub and killed it with a charge of duck shot 

 in the ribs. 



Two mornings before I left Nairobi a Mr. T., who has 

 a garden on which he prides himself, was awakened before 

 daylight by a most unusual noise in front of the house. 



On looking out, he beheld three buffalo dancing a 

 war dance among his flower beds. Yes, there is a good 

 deal going on at Nairobi. 



On my first sefari, three years before, I had pushed 

 from Nairobi into the country between the Theka and 

 Tana rivers, a very easy locality to reach, and at that time 

 full of game. 



Before packing up my rifles and selling my tent and 

 camp belongings, I determined to make one more visit 

 to it, and in the most rugged and hilly part of it try for 

 a buffalo. 



I found an accumulation of letters awaiting me, eight 

 months' arrears in fact, and what with these and the settle- 

 ment of large sefari matters, I had no time to bother about 



