could
persuade the Masai to furnish a guide. The country was a desert, and the
water scarce. We lined up our remaining twenty-six men and selected the
twelve best and strongest. These we offered a month and a half's extra
wages for the trip. We then made a hammock out of one of the ground
cloths, and the same afternoon C. started. I sent with him four of my
own men as far as the ox-wagon for the purpose of bringing back more
supplies. They returned the next afternoon bringing also a report from
C. that all was well so far, and that he had seen a lion. He made the
desert trip without other casualty than the lost of his riding mule, and
landed the wounded man in the hospital all right. In spite of C.'s
expert care on the journey out, and the best of treatment later, the
boy, to my great distress, died eleven days after reaching the hospital.
C. was gone just two weeks.
In the meantime I sent out my best trackers in all directions to look
for kudu signs, conceiving this the best method of covering the country
rapidly. In this manner I shortly determined that chances were small
here, and made up my mind to move down to the edge of the bench where
the Narossara makes its plunge. Before doing so, however, I hunted for
and killed a very large eland bull reported by Mavrouki. This beast was
not only one of the largest I ever saw, but was in especially fine coat.
He stood five feet six inches high at the shoulder; was nine feet eight
inches long, without the tail; and would weigh twenty-five hundred
pounds.
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