A FRESH START 219 



soon as you come to a village, then someone is 

 running." 



We decided that the best plan would be to make 

 a surprise visit to Nabom himself. If we caught 

 him, then he should be made an example of for 

 that January business, for the encouragement of 

 all other native spies. 



On the fifth evening out we surrounded Jumbe 

 Nabom's house, or rather huts, at dusk ; but the 

 bird, having no doubt had warning, was flown. 

 Pushing on from there, we burned a small supply 

 store of the enemy's outside Mweri. We knew, 

 of course, that the enemy would by now have 

 certainly got wind of us. 



Hearing of a German post away to our right 

 near the Msalu, we waited a few hours on the road 

 to Mweri, and picked up a couple of their notes. 

 One of the messengers we caught had, curiously 

 enough, in his skin bag my bunch of keys, lost in 

 my camp when it was taken by the Germans in 

 January. I greatly rejoiced at recovering them, 

 for they fitted some spare trunks and boxes left 

 at Mombassa. However, the enemy got them 

 once more a few days later, and no second 

 prisoner's bag ever disgorged them again. We 

 had great difficulty in obtaining guides ; the two 

 men of old Kisimo's, one a Jumbe, who had 

 followed me round to our column in January, 

 became too frightened to go any farther with us, 

 and were therefore useless. 



Ten days out from Meja, on the morning of 



