HIPPOPOTAMUS 195 



along the taffrail so as to cover this second hippo . . . 

 suddenly the telescope - sight detached itself, toppled 

 sidelong, and with sullen plunge disappeared in the 

 depths of Nile! This spelt sheer catastrophe, for I only 

 possessed one of these instruments and its loss signified 

 to me nothing less than atrophy the virtual annihila- 

 tion of all the plans and ambitions of my expedition. 

 That fact I realised at once, and instantly turned to take 

 exact bearings. On the bank directly inshore grew an 

 ambatch with a single yellow blossom, and I reckoned that 

 the lost telescope lay 18 yards straight outside that 

 flower. At once we anchored and I proceeded to my mark 

 in the dinghy. Everything now depended on the depth 

 of water. That, by signal good-luck, proved to be just 

 5 feet -"chin-deep" and soon I had three of the crew 

 hanging on to the gunwale while they explored the river- 

 bed with their feet. The bottom proved to be firm soil 

 overgrown by a creeping water-plant. Hope arose. Then, 

 at that critical moment, came a shout from the gyassa 

 anchored 40 yards away " Timsah!" ( = crocodile). 

 There was a swirl on the surface, and within brief 

 seconds the three "boys" had scrambled aboard. Hope 

 fell to zero. As a desperate resource I now fired three or 

 four rifle-shots vertically into the river; the vast columns 

 of water flung up 20 feet high by the impact of bullets 

 striking at a velocity of half a mile per second together 

 with a hint of backsheesh (the first and only time I ever 

 uttered that hateful word in the Sudan) turned the scale. 

 The sheer amazement of the men on thus visualising 

 the power of cordite, dissolved fear and reanimated them 

 to fresh efforts. A minute later one of the three black 

 heads plunged beneath the surface, the corresponding 

 hands disappearing from the gunwale. The next I saw 

 of them ere the head showed above water those 

 uplifted hands graspecl the sunken telescope! Truly it 

 was a marvellous recovery? I did those "boys" well 

 that night and well they deserved it. 



