ertain of one's direction; and a rocket
equipment should invariably be carried by the traveller in the wilds.
Several more were sent up before we got anywhere near camp, and I
remarked to Landaalu that we must have gone a very long way after the
eland. "Long way," he replied; "why, Master, we have been to Baringo!"
This lake as a matter of fact was fully fifty miles away. When finally
we arrived I fired the ardour of my companions by relating the
adventures of the afternoon and telling them of the wonderful herd I
had seen; and it was at once agreed that we should stay where we were
for a day or two in the hope of good sport being obtained.

As soon as it was daylight the next morning I sent out a party of our
porters with full instructions where to find my eland, which I was sure
must be lying somewhere in the thicket close to the hill from where I
had shot him; and very shortly afterwards we ourselves made a start.
After a couple of hours' travelling we were lucky enough to catch sight
of a portion of the herd of eland, when we dismounted and stalked them
carefully through the long grass. All of a sudden one popped up its
head unexpectedly about fifty yards away. One of my companions
immediately levelled his rifle at it, but from where I was I could see
better than he that the head was a poor one, and so called out to him
not to fire. The warning came too late, however, for at that moment he
pulled the trigger. It was rather a difficult shot, too, as the body of
the animal could not be seen very well owing to the height of the
grass; still, as the head instantly disappeared we hoped for the best
and ran up to the place, but no trace of the eland could be found.
Accordingly we pushed on again and after a little rested for a short
time under the shade of some trees. We had gone about three miles after
resuming our search for game, when one of the porters remembered that
he had left the water-bottle he was carrying at the trees where we had
halted, so he was sent back for it with strict injunctions to make
haste and to rejoin us as quickly as possible. Curiously enough, this
trifling incident proved quite providential; for the porter (whose name
was Sabaki), after recovering the water-bottle, found himself unable to
trace us through the jungle and accordingly struck home for camp. On
his way back he actually stumbled over the dead body of the eland which
I had shot the previous day and which the search party I had sent ou