eamed, the fiercer and less dignified became his
efforts; he reached a speed at times of fourteen or fifteen miles an
hour, and it was not until, after many miles, he reached a culvert he
dared not cross that he switched off at right angles. Realizing then
at last that the train could not follow him to one side he stood and
watched us pass, red-eyed, blown and angry. He had only one tusk, but
that a big one, and the weight of it caused him to hold his head at a
drunken-looking angle.

"Stop the train!" yelled Coutlass, brandishing his rifle as he climbed
to the seat on the roof. But the guard, likewise on the roof at his end
of the train, gave no signal and we speeded on. We were already in the
world's greatest game reserve, where no man might shoot elephant or any
other living thing.

We began to pass herds of zebra, gnu, and lesser antelope--more than a
thousand zebra in one herd--ostriches in ones and twos--giraffes in
scared half-dozens--rhinoceros--and here and there lone lions.
Scarcely an animal troubled to look up at us, and only the giraffes ran.

Watching them, counting them, distinguishing the various breeds we
three grew enormously contented, even Will Yerkes banishing depression.
Obviously we were in a land of good hunting, for the strictly policed
reserve had its limits beyond which undoubtedly the game would roam.
The climate seemed perfect. There was a steady wind, not too cold or
hot, and the rains were recent enough to make all the world look green
and bounteous.

To right and left of us--to north and south that is--was wild mountain
country, lonely and savage enough to arouse that unaccountable desire
to go and see that lurks in the breast of younger sons and all
true-blue adventurers. We got out a map and were presently tracing on
it with fingers that trembled from excitement routes marked with tiny
vague dots leading toward lands marked "unexplored." There were vast
plateaus on which not more than two or three white men had trodden, and
mountain ranges almost utterly unknown--some of them within sight of
the line we traveled on. If the map was anything to go by we could
reach Mount Elgon from Nairobi by any of three wild roads. Fred and I
underscored the names of several places with a fountain pen.

"And say!" said Will. "Look out of the window! If we once got away
into country like that, who could follow us!"

"But you can't get away!" said a. weary voice from the upper berth.
"I'm