250 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



journey I took just after I wrote last . . . did me no good as 

 I had intended keeping my tent that day. And that was 

 when I fell sick. I am going on first rate with everything I 

 want — which is not much. The doctor, a real good man, 

 cannot understand how I have kept so fat and strong on 

 lime fruit juice and water. So I have given him some 

 lectures on fasting ! I hope to be about again very soon now, 

 and then I shall feel I am starting with a clean sheet and 

 bottled- up energy. . . . Your tales of ' Lassie ' (his dog) are 

 always delightful. I wonder if she will know me when I get 

 home. The cutting through the bush has reached here. 

 Talbot is finishing some measurement work and angles now 

 on the way. By-the-bye, he is an ideal nurse, doing every- 

 thing with wonderful quickness. This delay is a terrible 

 nuisance. ... I heard from Bee the other day, saying 

 that he was coming along and was very fit. Gosling has 

 reached Yo and I expect the first English boat will have been 

 on Lake Chad by now." 



And on November 2 he wrote : 



" My dear Mother, — The last time I wrote I thought I 

 was doing so in rather an express way {via Yola) but the 

 runner has come back saying that the Pagans on the Yola 

 road ' chopped ' his boy and forced him to return. However, 

 he has started off again after a short delay with a few soldiers 

 as escort. It seems extraordinary, doesn't it, an important 

 road hke the Kukawa-Yola road being still unsafe ? I 

 beheve the Pagans concerned are ' booked ' for the dry season, 



the last straw being that H had his whisky attacked a 



short time ago ! . . . I shall not be able to get away just yet. 



