286 ON SAFARI 



side. Remember tliat your pet murderer has already 

 expiated his offence and is once more, by law, a free 

 and responsible member of the African community. 

 Acting on this conclusion, I wrote, months before start- 

 ing on my next expedition to East Africa, urgently 

 requesting our agents at Mombasa to secure for us 

 once more the services of this same headman; or at 

 least, in default of him personally, another precisely 

 such as he. There might, perhaps, be just a spice of 

 devilry in this, for our good friends at Mombasa feebly 

 rexDlied that they would do their best, but that they had 

 never before heard of " assassins at a premium ! " 



Alas for us, their efforts failed; and our second 

 headman was a poor forceless specimen, with no soul 

 to lead or the power to control. The result involved 

 endless trouble, day by day, in the direction and 

 management of our safari, such discipline as obtained 

 being that enforced by ourselves. 



The end, as already indicated (p. 236), w^as open 

 mutiny; when the forces of moral suasion had neces- 

 sarily to be replaced by those represented by the 

 sjambok. The desired effect resulted. 



