CHAPTER XIV 



WE REACH A REAL LAKE 

 So fair a troop 



Call it a travel that thou tak'st for pleasure 



King Richard II 



In the morning we found ourselves the centre of an 

 admiring throng. Every mouthful of my breakfast 

 was criticised and commented on, every square yard 

 of camp was congested with Somalis, and when one, 

 more daring than the rest, embraced a rifle box, tight 

 round its waist, as though to feel the weight, and 

 then let it drop, bump, my amazement and horror 

 knew no bounds. Even had he known the contents 

 I don't suppose the treatment meted out would have 

 been any kinder. The most experienced native 

 hunter has an idea that rifles are non-breakable, and 

 a small kink or bulge here and there can make no 

 possible difference ! But this — this was too much. 

 I could not order the zareba to be cleared, for the 

 good reason we had no zareba, having been too tired 

 the previous day to form one. I could, and did, 

 however, order the tents to be struck, and mean- 

 while Cecily watched like a detective at a fashionable 

 wedding over the treasures. It would have been 

 fairly easy to have lost bits of our kit in such crowds. 



