XIV 
RETURN TO LAKE RUDOLPH 
33 i 
In the absence of any surgical aid, the healing of my 
wounds had to be left to nature, acting on a healthy constitu¬ 
tion and seconded by cleanliness and water-dressings, while 
my ribs had to set themselves. For weeks I hardly slept, 
and it was two months before I could lie in any position 
except on my back. Sometimes even that caused me such 
agony that I had to be propped up all night in a sitting 
posture ; but without any pillows or cushions, or an easy- 
chair, I soon got too sore to endure that either. Still the 
healing process went on gradually ; the hole in my arm had 
closed without any trouble, and though the muscle did not 
join quite evenly, through the severed parts being somewhat 
displaced, it was well by about the middle of the second 
month. My side was more troublesome, the internal injuries 
causing suppuration with much discharge and all the disagree¬ 
able consequences, rendered particularly trying by the swelter¬ 
ing heat, day and night, which increased as the year grew older. 
By the end of the first month I was so sick of the shut-in 
camp at Kere, and had such a longing for a change of scene, 
that, feeling so far better as to be able to stand being carried, 
I determined to be taken back to the lake. On my journey 
hither I had noticed, in the Reshiat district, a sandy ridge with 
a few scattered trees, overlooking the lake at a part where it 
was open water, and I longed to be there, in the more airy 
situation, with the sea prospect and the birds and game to 
interest me. Besides, I hoped soon to be able to pot some¬ 
thing, if only doves ; for I began to feel the need of something 
more substantial than a milk diet to recuperate my wasted 
strength and fill out my shrunken limbs. I explained my 
plans to Abdulla, and told him I had confidence that I should 
pull round much more quickly if I could only get back to the 
shores of Bassu ; so a stretcher was prepared, and twelve of 
the best porters told off to carry me in relays, two at a time, 
in it slung from a long pole. They performed their task most 
zealously and ably ; leaving on 5 th February, we reached the 
