The lad is now at school in Belgium. This was perhaps the hardest-worked month I had known during the expedition, — there were palavers to be arranged, cases to be tried, and much galloping about the neighbourhood, to and fro between the town and station, as fast as my donkeys (a magnificent pair, imported into the country by the Arabs from Muscat) could carry me. The sight of a white man riding seemed to be an unfailing source of interest to the natives of this district, who had seldom seen anything of the kind. On one occasion, I remember, I was going fast across an open space in the town, where two large expeditions, just having returned from a foray, were drawn up and had formed a line to see me pass.

As we went about unguarded, not to appear afraid of them, I always rode as fast as I could, so that, if