5° 
EAST AFRICA AND ITS BIG GAME. 
buckets; some bushmen came up and offered to show 
us “water holes known only to themselves,” if we 
would give them eight hands of cloth. On our 
agreeing to this, one of the headmen innocently handed 
over the cloth, and then, followed by one or two askaris, 
started off with the guides to find the water, but he 
returned shortly with a long face and the sad news 
that the bushmen had bolted as soon as they had got 
a little way into the bush. 
When Martin arrived, with the tail of the caravan, 
we held a consultation, and decided that the best thing 
to do would be to wait till the moon w 7 as up, and then 
make it a case of sauve qui peut, and let every man 
“ leg” it as quickly as he could throughout the night to 
Ziwa Matate, the next watering-place, about twenty- 
four miles farther on. 
When all the loads had come in, a terrible discovery 
was made; the one containing all our boots and 2000 
rupees, which Martin was taking up to Mandara, chief 
of Moci, in payment for ivory sent by him down to the 
coast, was missing. Though it seemed but a forlorn 
hope, a reliable askari, called Cliandi, and three men 
were despatched with orders to go after the runaway 
right back to Mombasa if necessary. 
Half an hour after midnight we started with our 
personal servants and one man as guide, and marched 
straight on throughout the night till 7.5 A.M., only 
stopping a few minutes to rest on the way. My man 
Anole led the van with a lamp, and it was impossible 
not to laugh at the curious figure he cut, with nothing on 
