OUR RACE TO PARADISE 29 



fact that all the sympathy I got from my wife and 

 my comrades was a lot of hearty laughter. 



Percival joined us at the Guaso Nyiro river on 

 March 6th. He had left Nairobi a week after us in a 

 rattle-trap old Ford car. His vehicle was so patched 

 together with rope and wire that I wondered what 

 made it go. He brought a native driver to take it 

 back, a wild-looking Wakamba with filed teeth. 

 Percival was pretty well done in when he reached us, 

 having travelled night and day with his car limping 

 most of the way. He had used his last drop of 

 gasoline crossing the river. Had we camped any 

 further on he would have had trouble finding us. 



Time was flying and the rains getting closer and 

 closer to ruination of my plans. On March 7 I took 

 one of the cars and three boys and drove north 

 to look over the possibility of gettmg through the 

 mountains ahead of us. It was necessary to find out 

 if the trails would be passable for our ox wagons 

 and lorries. When we reached Lake Paradise we 

 could safari out after game in trackless deserts on 

 camels. But now we had to use these machines 

 which were utterly out of character in the desert 

 drama to convey our things to the moimtains and 

 beyond. Besides, they do make better time, in- 

 finitely better, though they destroy the atmosphere. 

 However there was atmosphere enough, with the 

 great desert stretching for miles to the north, a red 



