CHAPTER XIII 



VISITORS AND ILLNESS 



WHEN Fate gets good and busy we poor mortals 

 must take her lashings as best we may. 

 Our last eighteen months in Africa, which should 

 have been our best, were in some ways our hardest 

 through no fault of our own. I think the toughest 

 time Osa and I went through together was during the 

 only serious illness we have ever had. And while 

 the siege came after the events I shall presently 

 relate, I am going to describe it first because it 

 illuminates the difficulties the tourist may face if he 

 strays too far from the beaten path. I think we 

 escaped death only because we were too well seasoned 

 by many years in the field. 



For years snow-capped Mt. Kenya had been 

 beckoning us with a white finger across the wide 

 plains. Finally in our fourth winter of our last 

 expedition we set out to climb to the top of the 

 mountain and make films of the snow and ice up 

 there in contrast to the elephants and other tropical 

 animal life we had so faithfully recorded. 



We sent seven mules, fifteen porters and three 



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