CHAPTER XV 
DOWN THE NILE; THE GIANT ELAND 
We spent two or three days in Nimule, getting every¬ 
thing ready for the march north to Gondokoro. 
By this time Kermit and I had grown really attached 
to our personal followers, whose devotion to us, and whose 
zeal for our success and welfare and comfort, had many 
times been made rather touchingly manifest; even their 
shortcomings were merely those of big, naughty children, 
and though they occasionally needed discipline, this was 
rare, whereas the amusement they gave us was unending. 
When we reached Nimule we were greeted with enthu¬ 
siasm by Magi, Kermifs Kikuyu sais, who had been in 
charge of the mules which we did not take into the Lado. 
Magi was now acting as sais for me as well as for Kermit; 
and he came to Kermit to discuss the new dual relation¬ 
ship. ‘‘Now I am the sais of the Bwana Makuba, as 
well as of you, the Bwana Merodadi” (the Dandy Master, 
as for some inscrutable reason all the men now called Ker¬ 
mit); “well, then, you’ll both have to take care of me,” 
concluded the ruse Magi. 
Whenever we reached one of these little stations where 
there was an Indian trading store, we would see that those 
of our followers who had been specially devoted to us—and 
this always included all our immediate attendants—had a 
chance to obtain the few little comforts and luxuries, tea, 
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