OUR GUIDE DISAPPEARS 



69 



wliicli had no horns, and but for a light brown stripe on the 

 sides was of the reddish-brown colour of a roe. 



I saw a pair of giraffes, but neither rhinoceroses nor their 

 spoors, so' I had to conclude that those we had noticed the 

 day before were but casual wanderers. 



I went back past the water-holes to enjoy watching the 

 animated scene going on around them. One big pit had 

 been dug for the animals, and about a dozen holes from 

 6 to 8 feet deep for the men. For the cattle the water 

 was brought up in our india-rubber baths and big iron wash- 

 ing basins, whilst parties of the men guarded their own parti- 

 cular holes, going down in single file. As there was only a 

 very small pot full of the precious fluid for each at a time, 

 they all got thirsty before their turn came round again, so 

 there was a good deal of verbal strife, and now and then some- 

 thing more, when an intruder from some other party had to be 

 driven away, or when the pot had been returned to its owner 

 with too little water or too much sand. 



Our position, now that we had found water, was much more 

 assured, but the further carrying out of our plans was still 

 in considerable jeopardy, for, according to all the guides, we 

 should find no more till we got to Mount Nyiro, and scarcely a 

 fourth or fifth of our men had anything in which to carry 

 water, the greater number of the fragile calabashes having 

 gone the way of all things earthly. To add to our anxieties 

 the guide Baringo now disappeared. The Count had sent him 

 with Maktubu and a few men in the morning to explore our 

 further route. The men returned in a state of exhaustion late 

 in the afternoon, but without the guide ; and reported that they 

 had marched for some hours in the direction of Mount Nyiro 

 and then halted. As they were resting, Baringo had gone off, 

 telling them they could take it easily for a bit, and he would 

 just go and see if there were not a iDetter path behind the next 



