136 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 
unless they were as signally favoured as ourselves ? 
I suggested that they might be, because we did not 
surely suppose we were the only people with relatives 
able to pull the strings. We were both a bit “ shirty ” 
because we were vexed to know we had not got the 
Ogaden to ourselves. A nice sporting spirit, wasn’t it ? 
We were at lunch, battling with an altogether im- 
possible curry Cecily had perpetrated, for she always 
said you can curry anything, even old boots, at a push, 
and they would be rendered appetising. Oryx beat 
her efforts culinary, and she had to admit at last that 
curry powder and oryx meat should be strangers. 
As she had had all the trouble of stirring the concoc- 
tion over a grilling fire on a grilling day I struggled on 
as long as I possibly could in order that the amateur 
chef’s feelings should not be hurt, but confessed 
myself beaten in the end and very hungry, so we fell 
to opening a tin of meat. 
“ I fear no beef that’s canned by Armour,” sang 
Cecily, coming events not having cast any shadows 
before. 
“ Salaam, ladies ! ” said an English voice close at 
hand. 
It was the leader of the opposition shoot. The 
younger, my kinsman, was quarrelling with a syce 
about the proper way to hold a pony. I don’t know if 
we were glad to see them or not. Anyway we had to 
pretend to be, besides making the usual ridiculous 
remarks about the smallness of the world and how 
odd it was that we should have come across each other 
again. 
