40 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



But I couldn't get Cecily to try our luck again. She 

 said she was suited all right. The fact being that 

 neither of us yearned to make a possible exhibition 

 before our shikari. There was nothing for it. I took 

 my .500 Express, and with Clarence behind me flung 

 myself into the wilderness in as nonchalant a manner 

 as I could assume. I was really very excited in a 

 quiet sort of way, "for now sits Expectation in the 

 air." It got a trifle dashed after an hour of creeping 

 about with no sort of reward save the frightened rush 

 of the ubiquitous dik-dik. 



" Mem-sahib ! Mem-sahib ! " from the shikari, in 

 excited undertone. 



He gripped my arm in silent indication. 



"Mem-sahib!" in tones of anguished reproach. 

 " Gereniik ! " 



We were always Mems to Clarence, who perhaps 

 felt, like the lady at Aden, that if we weren't we ought 

 to be. 



I looked straight ahead, and from my crouching 

 position could make out nothing alive. I gazed in- 

 tently again. And, yes, of course, all that I looked at 

 was gereniik, two, three, four of them. In that moment 

 of huge surprise I couldn't even count properly. The 

 intervening bushes screened them more or less, but 

 what a comical appearance they had ! how quaintly 

 set their heads! how long their necks! how like 

 giraffes ! They moved on, slowly tearing down the 

 thorns as they fed. I commenced to stalk. There 

 was a fine buck with a good head. It was not difficult 

 to distinguish him, as his harem carried no horns. 



