Evening star., 1925-06-28

| there were plenty OF those, tney
| knew.
| Here was a predicament. Only sufii-
cient water had been brought for the
day; our horses needed water badly.
| So, for that matter, did we. We told
| the boys there were eight lanterns
available: would they not venture
with these? Eight sticks, banged
hard on eight debes, accompanied by
eight raucous voices and eight lamps,
/ could surely scare a lion. At last they
| ventured; the din they made was hor-
| rible.
A FTER waiting three-quarters Of
Z an hour. back they came. their
debes empty. no water, no sign OIL
water There were IL boys, ourselves,
Juliet and Major (our two horseS) and
the four mules which had drawn the
blackboard. Sternly A. distributed the
water from the two debes. quarter
of a pint for each horse and mule, the
rest for ourselves. Secretly. l gave
Juliet half Of mine. and she was still
| thirsty.
When the tents were in position.
| the horses and mules were tethered to
the tent posts, the boys In a circle on
the outside. bank OF hastily con-
| structed fires beyond them. Twelve
and improvised posts.
We were perilously near the bush,
| but what could we do? The boy hao
been 50 confident of the way. About
midnight the horses began stratn1ng
at the tent ropes. / spoke to them,
but failed to reassure them; In fact,
wanted reinsurance myself. A
harsh. grunting cough. The next
| moment I was out OF bed, had seized
oh
get up; there is something outside.
The boys too were shouting "Chui'-
chui~ (leopard) as they tried to re-
| strain the frightened horses. We
could see nothoing. but knew some
| thing had rubbed against my tent.
We went out and walked around
spoke to the horses, saw tho nres
| made up, and warned the boys TO take
turn and turn about In order 70 AZ
| tend them.
once more we returned to bed-A.
to sleep, I to toss restlessly about.
About 2 o'clock the same grunt1ng
cough as before. This time It sounded
between AS tent and mine. Again l
seized my gun and called to A, walk
ing to the door Of my tent in order TO
do so. Just as I reached the door
great spotted creature jumped the tent
ropes and was gone. A. sent shot
after 1t into the darkness, then two or
three more, in order to warn on any
thing that might be lurking ABOUT, ana
again we retired.
About 3 o'clock I was surprised to
hear a shot fired from AS tent. Pos
sibly 1 had dozed and heard nothing
until then. On hastily running out
side, found A., gun in hand. standing
over a leopard. no doubt our previous
visitor.
The beast was walking into my
tent" he announced. Well. one
more trophy"
We decided to sit and smoke cigar
cites until daylight. How we should
have liked a cup OF coffee, but you
can't make coffee without water.
The boys were not long in getting
the tents down, and an early start
was made, soon after 6 o'clock, in fact.
l felt horribly tired and had bad
headache. Still. it was no ones fault,
l suppose, unless that stupid boy was
TO blame.
A BOUT 4 O'Clock in the afternoon
\ the horses showed signs of dis
tress, and for half an hour we dis
mounted and walked. Then A. said,
Come, we must be getting on"
Neither of the horses seemed much in
most certainly would not urge Juliet
uphill, so walk they did. By $50
o'clock A. decided that if we We're to
get home before dark we must get
move on to use his own words.
We sent the blackboard on ahead.
It was useless leaving it behind, for
the lamps and tin Of kerosene were in
it, and once we let them lag behind
nobody knew when we should see
them. All went well for time. Then
all at once, without rhyme or reason
(unless he smelt a ionl, one Of the
mules became unmanageable. We rode
up just In time to see the blackboard
lllrch over into a ditch. one of the
mules being lamed, and we had to
leave the blackboard.
Each mule was given over to the
care of boy, and the next thing was
to find lamps. Out of IL lamps only
remained whole, and only a little oil
in those.
Fill the lamps at once" said A.
Easier said than done. Where was
the kerosene? In vain we hunted.
Then some of the boys jumped into
the ditch. 'Iko, Bwana" CIT is here'D,
triumphantly, and in the next breath
the short, staccato, "Ha, ha, haw
which denoted disappointment. There
was the tin, but where was the oil?
Here was pretty predicament-still
a good four miles from home, no moon
and very little oil. A. and I mounted
again.
Keep close beside u.s." he said to
the boys. They needed no second tell
ing. but we had to go slowly on ac-
count of the injured mule.