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.
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