LOST AGAIN ! 
37 
food since leaving Hargaisa twelve days ago. Having been 
much too early the night before, I made a later start, but 
what did we do but lose our way for the second time that 
day ! In two hours we had not reached the zareba we 
reached the night before in one hour. The sun was fast 
sinking. In another quarter of an hour it would be dark. 
With walking so fast after a heavy meal, I was now 
attacked with violent indigestion, and was obliged to sit 
down in agony. 
‘ What we do now ?’ asked my shikari. 
‘ Go to the devil and leave me alone,’ I thought to 
myself, but said nothing. 
At length I suggested they should build a zareba where 
we were and sleep the night there, tethering up the donkey 
which had brought my bedding. 
‘ How we build zareba without axe ?’ he answered. 
I produced my tiny penknife, the only cutting implement 
amongst us. My shikari grinned. By this time it was 
pitch dark, and we were utterly lost in dense thorn -jungle 
in a country infested by lions. But at that moment I felt 
so bad that I should have been quite happy if a big cat 
had pounced upon me and finished me off quickly. At last, 
feeling better, I got up, and after wandering aimlessly along 
for another half-hour, we luckily came upon our track of 
the night before. This we followed with great difficulty 
and very slowly until we eventually reached the little 
zareba, where, having tethered up our donkey on one side 
and our camel on the other, we blocked ourselves in with 
thorn-bushes, and watched in turn throughout the night. 
But the clouds clearing off unveiled the full moon, which, 
although no doubt a very beautiful object, was that night 
detestable to me, as it destroyed our chance of killing a 
lion. The reader will probably say : ‘ Serves you right for 
using such a cruel method for killing game, by baiting 
with living animals.’ But it must be remembered that it 
is the only way of getting this most magnificent of beasts 
in thick thorn jungle, where when tracked in the daytime 
