162 
IN AFRICA 
as he possibly could. He knew that there would be 
no time nor library references in Africa, and so he 
had prepared them in Washington before leaving 
America. 
In regard to his future movements he seemed 
sorry that he was obliged to take the Nile trip, and 
that he was only doing it as a matter of business— 
that he had to get a white rhino, which is found only 
along certain parts of the Nile. 
“Going back by the Nile is a long and hard trip. 
For the first twelve days we will not fire a shot, 
probably. It will mean getting started every morn¬ 
ing at three o’clock, marching until ten, then sweat¬ 
ing under mosquito bars during the heat of the 
day, with spirillum ticks, sleeping-sickness flies, 
and all sorts of pests to bother one; then long days 
on the Nile, with nothing to see but papyrus reeds 
on each side.” 
And speaking of “rhinos” suggests a little inci¬ 
dent that the colonel told and which he considers 
amusing. 
“One day one of the party was stalking a buffalo, 
when a rhino suddenly appeared some distance 
away and threatened to charge or do something that 
would alarm the buffalo and scare it away. So they 
told me to hurry down and shoo the rhino off while 
they finished their stalk and got the buffalo. So, 
you see, there’s an occupation. That settles the 
question as to what shall we do with our ex-pres¬ 
idents. They can be used to scare rhinos away.” 
On hearing this story I remembered that the 
