Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-06-27

Early next morning the advance
guard came upon the tracks of about
half a dozen men with transport ami
mails probably donkeys, though the
ground was So hard it was impossible
10 make any but an approximate esti-
mate.
The party had evidently tried to
conceal themselves. and had bN-
ouacked in a hollow tucked away in
fold of the ground.
All doubt as to their identity was
soon removed by the discovery of a
round of the ammunition habitually
used by the iIavash. They are always
careless, and one of them had evil
IDENTITY let this round fall from his
rough homemade bandolier.
1t was most unpleasant looking
missile. of solid Lead almost as thick
as mans little finger. with the end
flattened. and nearly as large as a
threepenny bit To make 1t less in
vitinE, ii was Very dirty, the bullet
being TANNED into the cartridge case
with some greasy paper and coated
all over with verdigris. X. remarked
as he handed it to me. IF either of
us manages to stop one of these. my
boy. he'll soon be past praying for"'
Following these tracks. we even
tually came upon stout shelter over
looking rain pool. evidently con
Structed by the hunters as q cover
from which 10 shoot animals coming
down 10 drink. Here we camped and
noticed that the game i'll the vicinity
was particularly wild. sure sign of
the recent presence of rif1emen. As
we had very little grain. ! sailed
forth to try to shoot a beast to sup
plement the meager rations, but was
unable TO get near anything.
The guards now were utterly use
less. We felt our way forward, fol
lowing up the raiders. During the
next midday halt, looking about for u
patch of shade in which 10 lie. | had
the luck 10 stumble on what an os-
trich presumably calls a nest; at any
rate, l found several eggs in hole
in the sand. X. and ! eagerly con
stunned them in the form of excellent
omeleis.
That night ours was WaterlesS
camp. The camels We're dropping and
the food supply was getting low, so
that we realized that unless we could
run our quarry to earth within "a
hours we would have 10 return
empty ha nded TO the lake shore
Making an early start. we soon
reached more broken country and
signs OF vegetation began TO appear.
Calling halt to enable the column
10 close up. ! sent the spearmen and
few rifles forward To reconnoiter a
wooded valley which opened up TO our
immediate front
As | did not wish To move on until
! had received report from the adj
vance party. X. decided to ascend a
neighboring kopie for the purpose of
taking some Typographical observa-
tons. Hardly had he disappeared
with his escort than my scouts re-
turned and reported the presence of
stockade in the valley, guarded by
men with rifles
x X K
At last we had located our quarry.
Leaving the Abyssinian transport
corporal with the Somali constabulary
in charge of the camels, | moved off
quietly with the rest of my askaris.
Pushing through the thick thorn
bush which covered the entrance to
the little valley, | soon espied a thick
thorn Zariba. some 10 feet high, in an
open space which evidently had been
cleared by fire. Close to the entrance,
which was farthest from me. was a
small water hole.
animals. which had evidently been
graZed in the vicinity and Watered at
the we'll Inside the stockade. which
had obviously been in existence for
some time. was a hut constructed of