ervently.

"Certainly not," we cried with equal fervour. We both like dogs.

Then followed wearisomely reiterated assurances that we, at least, knew
how a gentleman should be treated, and more boasting of proud
connections in the past. But the end of it was a bargain of reasonable
dimensions for ourselves, our personal boys, and our loads. Under plea
of starting our safari boys off we left him, and crept, with shattered
nerves, around the corner of the dak-bungalow. There we lurked, busy at
pretended affairs, until our friend swaggered away to the Hindu
quarters, where, it seems, he had his residence.

About ten o'clock a small safari marched in afoot. It had travelled all
of two nights across the Thirst, and was glad to get there. The single
white man in charge had been three years alone among the natives near
Kilimanjaro, and he was now out for a six months' vacation at home. Two
natives in the uniform of Sudanese troops hovered near him very
sorrowful. He splashed into the water of the dak-bungalow, and then
introduced himself. We sat in teakwood easy-chairs and talked all day.
He was a most interesting, likeable, and cordial man, at any stage of
the game. The game, by means of French vermouth--of all
drinks!--progressed steadily. We could hardly blame him for celebrating.
By the afternoon he wanted to give things away. So insistent was he that
F. finally accepted an ebony walking-stick, and I an ebony knife inset
with ivory. If we had been the least bit unscrupulous, I am afraid the
relatives at home would have missed their African souvenirs. He went out
_via_ freight car, all by himself, seated regally in a steamer chair
between two wide-open side doors, one native squatted on either side to
see that he did not lurch out into the landscape.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] Fifty pounds.

XXVI.

THE FRINGE-EARED ORYX.

At ten o'clock the following morning we started. On the high front seat,
under an awning, sat the German, F., and I. The body of the truck was
filled with safari loads, Memba Sasa, Simba Mohammed, and F.'s boy,
whose name I have forgotten. The arrangement on the front seat was due
to a strike on the part of F.

"Look here," said he to me, "you've got to sit next that rotter. We want
him to bring us back some water from the other side, and I'd break his
neck in ten minutes. You sit next him and give him your motor car
patter."

Therefore I took the middle seat and played chorus. The road was not