A VERY UNLUCKY DAY. 177 



CHAPTER XI. 



Feb. 25. We have returned to Berket Johda and to 

 our two mud- pools, but merely to pass the night, for to- 

 morrow we intend moving farther down the Royan to 

 try our luck there. Mohanled, the cook, made a great 

 display of delight at our safe return, though his fears 

 were evidently more nearly associated with want of con- 

 fidence in the combined cooking powers of Albert and 

 Ibrahim than with thoughts of Abyssinians. A rhino- 

 ceros took a mean advantage of our absence by paying 

 a visit at night to our pools, and was not easily driven 

 away by the guardians of our property. 



This has been a very unlucky day for most of us. 

 Thanks to Essafi, I lost the only good chance I shall 

 probably have of shooting an ostrich, for, coming round 

 a sharp bend of the river, I saw from behind a tree a 

 tetel and a black ostrich close to one another, and not 

 more than eighty yards off. Just as I was going to fire 

 at the ostrich, Essafi pulled me and said ' la ' (no), be- 

 lieving that I had only seen the tetel and was aiming at 

 it. At the same moment the ostrich perceived us, and 



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