Part 23 (1/2)
These and the zebra and wildebeeste were at Juja the ame animals If they could not for the moment be seen froate was sufficient to revealtheazelle, or ”Tommies” So small were they that only their heads could be seen above the tall grass as they ran
Toout over those sloppy plains in search of adventure, and in the pleasure of watching the beasts Scarcely less fascination haunted a stroll down the river canyons or along the tops of the bluffs above them Here the country was broken into rocky escarpments in which were caves; was clothed with low and scattered brush; or ooded in the bottom lands Naturally an entirely different set of animals dwelt here; and in addition one was often treated to the roraceful creatures, tri red coats Sometimes they would venture out on the open plains, in a very cohtest alare of bushes Once from the bluff above I saw a beautiful herd of over a hundred pacing decorously along the river bottole file, the oldest buck at the head, and theup the rear after the does I shouted at thean to leap, springing straight up into the air as though froraceful bounds like dolphins at sea These leaps were incredible Several even jumped quite over the backs of others; and all without a see of the river, too, dwelt the lordly waterbuck, s of Landseer; and the tiny steinbuck and duiker, no bigger than jack-rabbits, but perfect little deer for all that The incredibly plebeian wart-hog rooted about; and down in the bottom lands were leopards I knocked one off a rock one day In the river itself dwelt hippopotaed under a yearling calf just below the house itself, and while ere there Besides these were of course such affairs as hyenas and jackals, and great nuuinea fowl, pigeons, quail, and jack snipe, not to speak of a variety of plover
In the drier extents of dry grass atop the bluffs the dance birds were especially nu nicely trodden out, each leaping and falling rhythhts of sand grouse swarround
Near Juja I had one of the three experiences that especially iao River, and had followed hi to be able to put in a finishi+ng shot As soth as tinalled for my horse, mounted, and started out to run hiaht away; other herds on either side, seeing the, came across in a slant to join the before a cloud that fairly obscured the landscape, and the dru of cattle It was a wonderful sight
On the plains of Juja, also, I had my one real African Adventure, when, as in the Sunday Supplerace andto the faran to look around forMean to stalk thefield, for which I carried extra cartridges in my belt On this occasion, however, I traded with Me it out At a few paces over three hundred yards I landed on the zebra, but did not knock hi job and took ain he joined other zebra, when, of course, I could not tell one frohten the lot There upon the uninjured ones would distance the one that was hurt The latter kept his eye on et within reasonable distance, I put up the rear sight of the 405, and let drive I heard every shot hit, and after each hit was more than a little astonished to see the zebra still on his feet, and still able to wobble on The fifth shot ees for this arm, I approached to within sixty yards, and stopped to wait either for him to fall, or for a very distant Mees Then the zebra waked up He put his ears back and caht in my direction This rush I took for a blind death flurry, and so dodged off to one side, thinking that he would of course go byaround on the circle too, and made after , and his teeth snapping with rage It was a e, and, as such, with due deliberation, I offer it to sportses I ran away as fast as I could go Although I made rather better time than ever I had attained to before, it was evident that the zebra would catch me; and as the brute could paw, bite, and kick, I did not much care for the situation Just as he had nearly reached ht I could put up with a clubbed rifle barrel, he fell dead To be killed by a lion is at least a dignified death; but to be mauled by a zebra!
I am sorry I did not try out this heavy-calibred rifle oftener at long range It was a marvellously effective weapon at close quarters; but I have an idea-but only a tentative idea-that above three hundred yards its velocity is so reduced by air resistance against the big blunt bullet as greatly to iot back froleaood wet drinks next the easy chairs There, after changing our clothes, we sipped and read the papers-two months off the press, but fresh arrived for all that-until a white-robed, dignified figure appeared in the doorway to inform us that dinner was ready Our ere civilized and soft, then, until the ain, perhaps, ent forth into the African wilderness
Juja is a place of startling contrasts-of naked savages clipping for fro-rooht whence float the lost wails of hyenas or the deep gru of lions, of cushi+oned luxurious chairs in reach of ame herds feed, of comfortable beds with fine linen and soft blankets where one lies listening to the voices of an African night, or the weirder uess, of tennis courts and summer houses, of lawns and haes separated only by a few strands of woven wire from fields identical with those in which roamed the cave men of the Pleistocene But to Billy was reserved the most ridiculous contrast of all Her bedrooarden This was a very forravelled walks, bordered flower beds, and clipped border hedges One night she heard a noise outside Slipping on a rap and seizing her trusty revolver she stole out on the veranda to investigate She looked over the veranda rail There just below her, tra the sundial, stood a hippopotahbours six or seven ht and luxuriate in the comforts of civilization They were a Lady A, and her nephew, and a young Scotch acquaintance the nephew had taken into partnershi+p They had built themselves circular houses of papyrus reeds with conical thatched roofs and earth floors, had purchased ox teaed in breaking a farh and hard, and Lady A and her nephew gently bred, but they see quite cheerfully the tiame furnished them meat, as it did all of us, and they hoped in time that their labours wouldas was the life, it was also one of many deprivations At Juja were a nuirls in which so fascinated the youngthe to us
C, the nepheas of the finest type of young Englishaging vitality and optie, was an insufferable youth
Brought up in some small Scottish valley, his outlook had never widened Because he wanted to buy four oxen at a cheaper price, he tried desperately to abrogate quarantine regulations If he had succeeded, he would have made a few rupees, but would have introduced disease in his neighbours' herds This consideration did not affect hi at what he could not understand; and therefore, a great deal ht him down only to about the middle sixties; and affairs at that date were to hi questions Thus he would declaim vehemently over the Alabama claims
”I blush with shaland's attitude in that matter”
We pointed out that the dispute had been amicably settled by the best minds of the tiiven way in immediate i policy,” he swept on, ”annoys me For my part, I should like to see so firm a stand taken on all questions that in any part of the world, whenever a lishman? everybody else would draw back!'”
He was an incredible person However, I was glad to see him; he and a few others of his kind have consoled me for a number of Americans I have met abroad Lady A, with the tolerant philosophy of her class, seemed merely amused I have often since wondered how this ill-assorted partnershi+p turned out
Two other neighbours of ours dropped in once or twice-twenty-six miles on bicycles, on which they could ride only a portion of the distance
They had soa Hills; and were two of the nicest fellows one would want to ood a tiruood time too Once they rode on their bicycles forty ht at a Govern, and did an afternoon's plowing! They explained this feat by pointing out , but they did not want to miss the ball!
Occasionally a trim and dapper police official would drift in on horseback looking for native criminals; and once a safari came by
Twelve miles aas the famous Kamiti Farm of Heatly, where Roosevelt killed his buffalo; and once or twice Heatly himself, a fine chap, came to see us Also just before I left with Duirs for a lion hunt on Kapiti, Lady Girouard, wife of the Governor, and her nephew and niece rode out for a hunt In the African fashi+on, all these people brought their own personal servants Iteasy nobody knohere all these boys sleep; but they e to tuck away somewhere, and always show up after ato be done
We stayed at Juja a little over three weeks Then most reluctantly said farewell and returned to Nairobi in preparation for a long trip to the south
XXIX CHAPTER THE LAST
With our return fro space, this voluive a fairly coe a subject-of a portion of East Equatorial Africa, its animals, and its people Those who are sufficiently interested will have an opportunity in a succeeding voluly coast region; the fierce desert of the Serengetti; the swift sullen rhinoceros-haunted stretches of the Tsavo; Nairobi, the strangest mixture of the twentieth centuries AD and BC; Mombasa with its wild, barbaric passionate ebb and flow of life, of colour, of throbbing sound, the great lions of the Kapiti Plains, the Thirst of the Loieta, the Masai spearh unknown country beyond the Narossara and other affairs will there be detailed If the reader of this volume happens to want more, there he will find it