Part 35 (2/2)

When I had wiped off that mess with Kazi the retreating Masai, kneeling to shoot every few yards, at every other shot or so bringing down a victi rapidly out-distanced Cattle are all the Masai care about They had the cattle They had hold of tails and werethe whole herd scamper due east, where they no doubt knew of a trail not in maps

They --and ran I sao or three wounded ones riding on cows, and no doubt so to the cows' tails ounded, too

I was useless now, as far as fighting was concerned, for the butt of rip, but I ran on, and heard Brown shout:

”Shoot cattle! Don't let the brutes get aith the cows himself when I came up, but it was Fred who stopped him

”Never mind that, old et your cattle back, never fear Dead ones are no use”

Brown stopped shooting and began to blubber Whisky had not left hih to see his whole available resources carried away before his eyes, and he broke down as utterly as any child It was neither agreeable nor decent to watch, and I turned away I was feeling sick myself from the pressure of the Masai's knees in er (for we had not stopped to eat a ument, and I hunted about for a soft place and a little shade It happened that Fred Oakes atching h I did not know it He suspected sunstroke

I saw a cluh I could crush down so deathly sick now

As I reached the grass ered, but did not quite fall

That, and Fred's watchfulness, saved ave the sudden forward lurch, a wounded Masai jumped out of the rushes and drove with his spear at my breast The blade passed downback, and e at me, but Fred's rifle barked at the sa the spear intothat are the worst in ruesome news that the spear-blade was alrene The Masai are no believers in wounded enemies, or mercy on the battlefield

We doubted the assertion for a while--I especially, for none but a hypochondriac would care to adrene had been forced into his systenant, and offered to prove the truth of his claiht on which to prove it We asked hirene, injected in that way, took to kill a man

”Very few minutes!” he answered

Then it occurred that none of us knehat to do Kaziood at once if given perain fro rass a third of an inch thick from the bed of the tiny watercourse, and proceeded toin a hurry as he did it to several of Fred's string of porters, ere now arriving on the scene

While I watched with a sort of tortured interest what he was doing at the fire, five of the largest boys ho rushed le, or even swear, had round One sat on my head; one on my poor bruised stomach; the others held wrists and ankles in such way that I could not break free, nor even kick lowing ends of grass fro on them to keep them cherry-red, and inserted one after another into the open spear-wound I could not cry out, because of theon lory of the man--Ali bin Yema, his name was--be it written that he neither spoke nor hthe process lasted, or how many ti sticks, for I fainted; and when I caony was still too intense to pered, how and hat I neither knew nor cared And it was evident that unless they chose to leave ht of pursuing Masai for the present Even Bro the force of that, and he was the first to refuse flatly to leave rass for more wounded men, but found none There must have been several, but they probably feared the sort of ave to their own enemies, and crawled away--in all likelihood to die of thirst and hunger, unless some beast of prey should smell them out and make an earlier end

Then there was consultation It was decided a doctor for est German station on Victoria Nyanza, was probably as near as anywhere, and that Ger our immediate destination anyway, the best course to take was forward, roughly south by west So I was slung in a blanket on a tent-pole, and we started, I swearing like a pirate every ti in the nature of a burn thathymns)

Our troubles were not all over, for we passed through a country where buck were fairly plentiful, and that e, but they kept us awake; and one night near the first village we came to, where our porters all quartered thee from their crowded tents, the fires that we made went out, and five lions (we counted their foot-prints afterward) cas of the tent in which Fred and I lay, we lying still and sha dead To have lifted a rifle in the darkness and tried to shoot would have been suicide

Then there were trees we passed a to and fro in the evening breeze like snakes head-doard And taking advantage of that natural provision, twenty-foot pythons swung a the habit of the tree One of them knocked Fred's helmet off as he marched beside me They are easy to kill He shot it, and it dropped like a stone, three hundred pounds or more, but the sweat ran down Fred's face for half an hour afterward

(Since then I have seen pythons kill their prey a score of ti The end of their nose is as hard as iron, and they strike a terrific bloith that, so swift that the eye can not follow it Then, having killed by striking, they crawl around their prey and crush it into shape for sing)

But the worst of the journey was the wayside villages--dirty beyond belief, governed in a crude way by a headman whom the Gerars (for they were no better)--destitute paupers, taxed until their wits failed theh out of which to pay--were supplied with aof brass and iers To add to the irony of that, the law of the land perh to beat them, with as

On arriving at such a village, the first thing we did was to ask forto refuse for fear lest a Gereance later But it was always too dirty to drink

That cereht for our inspection Grueso ulcers, wounds and crippled liaze

There was little we could do for thees was alin with By the tih lint and liniment left to take care of my wound; but even that scant supply we cut in half for a particularly bad case

”Don't the Gerain

The ansas always the same