40 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 
But I couldn’t get Cecily to try our luck again. She 
said she was suited all right. The fact being that 
neither of us yearned to make a possible exhibition 
before our shikari. There was nothing for it. I took 
my .500 Express, and with Clarence behind me flung 
myself into the wilderness in as nonchalant a manner 
as I could assume. I was really very excited in a 
quiet sort of way, 4 4 for now sits Expectation in the 
air.” It got a trifle dashed after an hour of creeping 
about with no sort of reward save the frightened rush 
of the ubiquitous dik-dik. 
44 Mem-sahib ! Mem-sahib ! ” from the shikari, in 
excited undertone. 
He gripped my arm in silent indication. 
44 Mem-sahib ! ” in tones of anguished reproach. 
44 Gereniik ! ” 
We were always mems to Clarence, who perhaps 
felt, like the lady at Aden, that if we weren’t we ought 
to be. 
I looked straight ahead, and from my crouching 
position could make out nothing alive. I gazed in- 
tently again. And, yes, of course, all that I looked at 
was gereniik, two, three, four of them. In that moment 
of huge surprise I couldn’t even count properly. The 
intervening bushes screened them more or less, but 
what a comical appearance they had ! how quaintly 
set their heads ! how long their necks ! how like 
giraffes ! They moved on, slowly tearing down the 
thorns as they fed. I commenced to stalk. There 
was a fine buck with a good head. It was not difficult 
to distinguish him, as his harem carried no horns. 
