CHAPTER XIV 
WE REACH A REAL LAKE 
So fair a troop 
Call it a travel that thou tak’st for pleasure 
King Richard II 
In the morning we found ourselves the centre of an 
admiring throng. Every mouthful of my breakfast 
was criticised and commented on, every square yard 
of camp was congested with Somalis, and when one, 
more daring than the rest, embraced a rifle box, tight 
round its waist, as though to feel the weight, and 
then let it drop, bump, my amazement and horror 
knew no bounds. Even had he known the contents 
I don’t suppose the treatment meted out would have 
been any kinder. The most experienced native 
hunter has an idea that rifles are non-breakable, and 
a small kink or bulge here and there can make no 
possible difference ! But this—if/ws was too much. 
I could not order the zareba to be cleared, for the 
good reason we had no zareba, having been too tired 
the previous day to form one. I could, and did, 
however, order the tents to be struck, and mean- 
while Cecily watched like a detective at a fashionable 
wedding over the treasures. It would have been 
fairly easy to have lost bits of our kit in such crowds. 
