2 THE CALL OF THE RED GODS 



time elapsed before my long-cherished dream was 

 fulfilled, arid I too killed my first stag. He was, 

 by the favour of the gods, the precursor of many. 

 Then, " whilst I peered in maps for ports and 

 piers and roads," by a turn of Fortune's wheel for 

 which in my wildest imaginings I had never dared 

 to hope, came two glorious, never-to-be-forgotten 

 years, despite their sad close, 



" And the islands which were the Hesperides 

 Of all my boyish dreams " 



developed into living realities. That virtually 

 settled my affairs in life and laid me under the 

 spell of the Red Gods. 



Never will the memory of those years fade ! 

 The scent of the pines, most wonderful of odours, 

 borne on cold and austere breezes of the north ; 

 the painted, steaming glories of the South Seas 

 and nights beneath the Southern Cross ; the languor 

 of eastern islets and the blaze of the tropics ; the 

 decaying glories of the past ; the strong, bright 

 hopes of lands which are yet to be. It seemed 

 then as if my stalks abroad were over, that never 

 for long years should I see again mighty beasts of 

 the earth wandering amid the silent places, nor 

 stand before the Red Gods and make sacrifice at 

 the trysting-place. Yet even then they were at 

 work, although I knew it not. They took the 

 matter in hand, or so I like to think, upon a 

 gloomy, wet day in Masailand ; continued it, three 

 years later almost to the day, through the prosaic 

 medium of a telephone box at the Bath Club ; and 

 finally brought me to Prince's landing-stage on the 

 afternoon of May 19th, 1911. 



