were spoiled. Often, too, on a brilliant moonlight
night have I sat on a rock out in the middle of the stream, near a
favourite drinking place, waiting for a shot at whatever fortune might
send my way. How exasperating it was, when the wind changed at the
critical moment, and gave me away to the rhino or other animal I had
sat there for hours patiently awaiting! Occasionally I would get
heartily tired of my weary vigil and would wade ashore through the warm
water, to make my bed in the soft sand regardless of the snap, snap of
the crocodiles which could plainly be heard from the deeper pools up
and down the river. At the time, being new to the country, I did not
realise the risks I ran; but later on--after my poor Wa Kamba follower
had been seized and dragged under, as I have already described--I
learned to be much more cautious.

The shortest way of reaching the Athi river from Tsavo was to strike
through the jungle in a north-westerly direction, and here there was
luckily a particularly well-defined rhino path which I always made use
of. I discovered it quite by accident on one occasion when I had asked
some guests, who were staying with me at Tsavo, to spend a night on the
banks of the river. As we were making our way slowly and painfully
through the dense jungle, I came across this well-trodden path, which
appeared to lead in the direction in which I wished to go, and as I
felt convinced that at any rate it would bring us to the river
somewhere, I followed it with confidence. Our progress was now easy,
and the track led through fairly open glades where traces of bush-buck
and water-buck were numerous; indeed once or twice we caught glimpses
of these animals as they bounded away to the shelter of the thicket,
warned by the sound of our approach. In the end, as I anticipated, the
old rhino path proved a true guide, for it struck the Athi at an ideal
spot for a camping ground, where some lofty trees close to the bank of
the river gave a most grateful and refreshing shade. We had a
delightful picnic, and my guests greatly enjoyed their night in the
open, although one of them got rather a bad fright from a rhino which
suddenly snorted close to our camp, evidently very annoyed at our
intrusion on his domain.

In the morning they went off as soon as it was light to try their luck
along the river, while I remained in camp to see to breakfast. After an
hour or more, however, they all returned, empty-handed but very hungry;