152 WAR: CAMPAIGNING IN EAST AFRICA 



necessary to pack a mule with water-tanks for 

 some way and then send it back, leaving a little 

 supply of water in a hole lined with my oil-sheet. 

 We had about twenty miles' walk during the night 

 before reaching the gap, and we spent the following 

 day in a patch of wild sisal on a little hill over- 

 looking the German pickets. At dark next night 

 we started on the return journey, arriving soon 

 after daylight the following morning at the place 

 where we had planted the water. There we had 

 an unpleasant surprise, for a wretched hyena had 

 in the meantime found our plant, and, pulling 

 away the sticks covering it, had dragged out 

 my oil-sheet, in which he had eaten several large 

 holes. The water, of course, was gone. The 

 question was, could I declare a ground-sheet 

 eaten by a hyena as one "lost in action," and so 

 claim a new one ? A second question arose : 

 Did the hyena indulge in one of his good laughs 

 on the completion of his little practical joke ? 

 As we found water in a little pool some miles farther 

 on, not much harm was done. 



Both Williams and I were then very fit, and I 

 think we must have walked a clear thirty miles 

 straight off on the return journey. On this little 

 trip we twice saw elephants very close, and on 

 one occasion we stopped and had a good look at 

 a large bull standing quite near to us in the thorn 

 bush. The big columns were already in motion 

 on the southern advance on our return ; our divi- 

 sion, the ist, under General Hoskins, moving 



