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He was accompanied by a rather fine-looking 

 savage, who carried a beautifully made Masai 

 spear; this man told me he often went to the 

 Government station at Embu, and was, in fact, 

 going there the following day. As I wished to 

 send an official letter to the officer in charge, I 

 asked him to call for it in the morning before he 

 started. He promised me faithfully that he would 

 do this, but as I did not quite trust him I requested 

 him to leave his spear as a pledge. This he 

 readily agreed to do, driving it into the ground at 

 my tent door. Instead, however, of coming in the 

 morning, he crept into the camp in the darkness of 

 the night, cautiously took his spear from under the 

 nose of the askari on sentry, and I never saw him 

 again. 



At this same place another wily native tried 

 to play a trick on us, but unfortunately for himself 

 it failed. He was an avaricious-looking villain, and 

 as he prowled round the camp he caught sight of 

 some coils of copper wire which he greatly coveted. 

 Paul, the cook, happened to pass by as he was 

 gloating over the wire, and told him he could have a 

 coil if he brought a dozen eggs in exchange. On 

 hearing this his face lit up with joy, and off he went, 

 returning in a little while with the eggs. When he 

 was questioned as to their freshness, he asserted 

 many times that they were quite "new laid." To 



