CHAPTER VI 
BENIGHTED IN THE JUNGLE 
Mercy o’ me, what a multitude are here ! They grow still, 
too ; from all sides they are coming 
King Henry VIII 
O, I have passed a miserable night, 
So full of ugly sights, of ghostly dreams 
King Richard III 
One of our hunters, a melancholy-visaged individual, 
was a very amusing personage to go out with alone. 
He always acted like the guide of a Cook’s personally 
conducted tour. Not a tree, or twig, or water-hole 
was left to be seen or not seen by us. All must be 
brought to the notice of the Mem-sahibs. It reduced 
the tracking of game to a delicious farce. If we sighted 
an antelope he would first point it out to me most 
carefully, telling me about the distance the creature 
was from us, perhaps saying commandingly, “ You 
shoot um,” handing me my own rifle as though he 
were giving me a valuable present. J 
Sometimes he even went the length of putting it 
to my shoulder and cocking it for me, and was a 
grandmotherly hunter indeed 1 He spoiled a glorious 
chance for me one day with his chaperoning me 
through tactics, actually telling me the precise moment 
to fire, and when I did, at my own moment, and — 
