st man who did so and that if they would but trust
in me I would bring them through the mess. Now, ever since I had killed
those three elephants single-handed, I had gained great influence over
these men, and they listened to me. So off we went as hard as ever we
could go--the members of the Alpine Club would not have been in it with
us. We made the boulders burn, as a Frenchman would say.

"When we had done about a mile the spears began to emerge from the belt
of scattered bush, and the whoop of their bearers as they viewed us
broke upon our ears. Quick as our pace had been before, it grew much
quicker now, for terror lent wings to my gallant crew. But they were
sorely tired, and the loads were heavy, so that run, or rather climb, as
we would, Wambe's soldiers, a scrubby-looking lot of men armed with
big spears and small shields, but without plumes, climbed considerably
faster. The last mile of that pleasing chase was like a fox hunt,
we being the fox, and always in view. What astonished me was the
extraordinary endurance and activity shown by Maiwa. She never even
flagged. I think that girl's muscles must have been made of iron, or
perhaps it was the strength of her will that supported her. At any rate
she reached the foot of the peak second, poor Gobo, who was an excellent
hand at running away, being first.

"Presently I came up panting, and glanced at the ascent. Before us was a
wall of rock about one hundred and fifty feet in height, upon which
the strata were laid so as to form a series of projections sufficiently
resembling steps to make the ascent easy, comparatively speaking, except
at one spot, where it was necessary to climb over a projecting angle
of cliff and bear a little to the left. It was not a really difficult
place, but what made it awkward was, that immediately beneath this
projection gaped a deep fissure or donga, on the brink of which we now
stood, originally dug out, no doubt, by the rush of water from the
peak and cliff. This gulf beneath would be trying to the nerves of
a weak-headed climber at the critical point, and so it proved in the
result. The projecting angle once passed, the remainder of the ascent
was very simple. At the summit, however, the brow of the cliff hung over
and was pierced by a single narrow path cut through it by water, in such
fashion that a single boulder rolled into it at the top would make the
cliff quite impassable to men without ropes.

"At this moment Wambe's soldi