234 
SOMALILAND 
Colombo was a decided sniff* of drains ! So much for 
poetry and the ideal ! 
At night the men had no food and no water. I had a 
few pints locked up in a barrel, but I dared not eat much. 
I offered the men some of my food, but they refused it. 
At 2.30 next morning we restarted, when one of the 
camels could not walk. I had the poor creature shot, and 
then we trudged on in the darkness. Just when it was 
beginning to get light another camel fell, and could not 
be induced to rise. My headman rode after me and asked 
for orders. It was a race for water, we could not stop ; I 
said, ^ Shoot him.’ The riffe rang out its death-knell a few 
moments after. There was next to no water in its stomach ; 
the poor exhausted beast, having had no fresh grass, had 
used up its supply. The men seemed to think it rather a 
joke, and shouted after my headman, ^ If any camel fall 
down, shoot him, and if any man fall down, shoot him, 
shoot him !’ 
As the men had no food to-day, I was determined to try 
my best to shoot them some meat. We passed some 
magnificent open buns covered with long, dried-up grass, 
without seeing an oryx. At length we found fresh tracks, 
which I followed. Unfortunately, the oryx took the direc- 
tion of the caravan, and I knew then they would get the 
better of us. We followed in silence, and I knew we must 
be close to them, when all at once I heard them lumbering 
along back again towards us, having seen the caravan ; but 
they passed too far out for us to shoot, and although I ran 
as hard as I could to try and cut them off, they beat me, 
and I had the mortification of seeing all that good meat 
(there were upwards of twenty oryx) sail right away. I 
followed for about a mile, but they did not stop, so I re- 
turned dejected to the caravan. 
No food and no water ! I tried to think of more pleasant 
subjects. But my thoughts would always revert to the 
dreadful fact that we had no water. I tried to sing 
comic songs : ‘ At Trinity Church I met my Doom ’ was 
