32 SAFARI 



After a hasty breakfast I struck out for Isiolo, 

 making the fifty miles in four hours, fair racing 

 speed for this wild country. At Isiolo I foimd that 

 Rattray had left for Nairobi. I rushed on to 

 Archer's Post fifteen miles away and left orders with 

 Mohammed Sudan, the black clerk in charge, to have 

 my porters, when they came in, return for another 

 load as quickly as they could. Then I put on full 

 speed back to camp. 



Now it began to rain. I left Archer's Post at 

 9 P.M. in a downpour which soon made muck of the 

 going. At 10 I nearly ran into a group of a dozen 

 hyena, who were dazed by my light. At least fifty 

 jackals ran ahead of me at different times. About 

 midnight fotir fine maned lions and a lioness ran 

 across my trail and into the bush. A little further on 

 two lion cubs were playing in the road. Their 

 mother, a fine-limbed lioness, jumped out, defiantly 

 faced me a second, then the three slipped off into 

 the darkness. At a place called "Kipsing" by 

 the natives, I encountered three rhinos rooting in 

 the sand. They faced me and snorted angrily at my 

 intrusion, then trotted off. I killed many birds that 

 flew into the light and were blinded. As I had no 

 windshield several hit me in the face. 



It was a nightmare, that ride; and one that will 

 Rtay in my memory. I arrived back in camp at 

 3 P.M. all in, and too utterly exhausted even to vsleep- 



