86 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
of which stood my tent, flanked by those of the other white 
men and by the dining tent. In the next line were the cook 
tent, the provision tent, the store tent, the skinning tent, 
and the like; and then came the lines of small white tents 
for the porters. Between each row of tents was a broad 
street. In front of our own tents in the first line an askari 
was always pacing to and fro; and when night fell we 
would kindle a camp-fire and sit around it under the stars. 
Before each of the porters’ tents was a little fire, and be¬ 
side it stood the pots and pans in which the porters did their 
cooking. Here and there were larger fires, around which 
the gun-bearers or a group of askaris or of saises might 
gather. After nightfall the multitude of fires lit up the 
darkness and showed the tents in shadowy outline; and 
around them squatted the porters, their faces flickering 
from dusk to ruddy light, as they chatted together or sud¬ 
denly started some snatch of wild African melody in which 
all their neighbors might join. After a while the talk and 
laughter and singing would gradually die away, and as we 
white men sat around our fire, the silence would be un¬ 
broken except by the queer cry of a hyena, or much more 
rarely by a sound that always demanded attention—the 
yawning grunt of a questing lion. 
If we wished to make an early start we would breakfast 
by dawn and then we often returned to camp for lunch. 
Otherwise we would usually be absent all day, carrying 
our lunch with us. We might get in before sunset or we 
might be out till long after nightfall; and then the gleam 
of the lit fires was a welcome sight as we stumbled toward 
them through the darkness. Once in, each went to his 
tent to take a hot bath; and then, clean and refreshed, we 
