212 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



between sheets at the Norfolk Hotel — the hos- 

 telry 2^lus grande magnifique of the East African 

 Protectorate. The oxen were inspanned about 

 ten o'clock, and we travelled during the cool 

 hours of the night. Dawn found our wandering 

 home rumbling along over the little beaten and 

 broken roadway that leads to Sotik. In the 

 steel-grey light we could discern the forms of 

 Longonot to the right and Suswa nearer on our 

 left. Before us were hills, and then a great 

 table-shaped ridge of land that ran along the 

 leaden sky-line until it disappeared in the dim 

 dawn — it Avas the Mau. Behind us the Kikuyu 

 escarpment stood out black and sombre like 

 a giant black cloud-bank. We were travelling 

 through a great trough, one of the subsidiary 

 rents in the Rift Valley. 



Brighter and brighter grew the east. A blush 

 of pink, delicate and beautiful, seemed to do 

 battle with the sullen, steely frown of daybreak. 

 I watched the contest idly and waited to see 

 dawn win the day and proclaim her victory in 

 gorgeous tints and colourings. 



Then I slid down from the wagon, rifle in hand, 

 and shouted to Elmi to follow. Out on the 

 plain shapes were moving, galloping, running 

 or walking quietly along. As the light grew 

 better I could see great herds of tawny-coloured, 

 ungainly-looking antelopes — Coke's hartebeestes, 

 perhaps the most common animals of British 

 East Africa. Zebra were there, too, in great 

 numbers; and in the early daylight they ap- 

 peared the colour of modern British ironclads — 

 the colour of Navy paint. On the other side 

 of the path half-a-dozen stately Grant's gazelle 

 rushed madly away towards Longonot, dis- 

 turbed by the groaning and straining of the 



