ix OUR CAMP BY THE THIKA RIVER 115 



going some dozen paces. Number two, in his rage, 

 took not the slightest notice of the rifle shot but 

 came galloping furiously past, with the result that a 

 moment afterwards he too toppled over by the side 

 of his late enemy, stone dead. 



Of course I was naturally overjoyed with my luck, 

 especially as it was such a rare chance, and the 

 first occasion on which I had come across a roan 

 antelope. Leaving my gun-bearer to do the 

 skinning, I rode rapidly to camp for porters to carry 

 in the trophies, and on the way bagged a fine 

 ostrich and a warthog. When I arrived my com- 

 panions had just, finished lunch, and one of them 

 asked me what luck I had had. Beginning with 

 the smallest I told him that I had bagged a jackal, 

 a Grant, a warthog, an ostrich, and two roan ante- 

 lopes. "Yes," he replied sarcastically, "and you 

 have forgotten the three lions." Nor did he quite 

 believe in my good fortune until the trophies arrived 

 in camp a few hours later, when at last he was 

 convinced, and remarked : "You are the luckiest man 

 in Africa." 



But all this is a digression, and I should not 

 have remembered to put on record these experiences 

 of a previous trip, but for the fact of our being 

 camped in the neighbourhood of the Tana, which 

 brought everything back vividly to my mind and 

 induced me to jot them down roughly by the light 



