I grew more than a little anxious about the donkeys, as I was afraid they would lose heart and let themselves drown. Donkeys are like that sometimes when they are in difficulties. I clung to the ears of my two, and held their heads above water by main force. I got cold and chilled, while thoughts of crocodiles _would_ come into my head. Once a submerged log drifted past beneath the surface, and in passing grazed my thigh. I turned actually sick with apprehension, but it went on with the current, and left me shivering as with ague. I ordered some of the men to get into the river and swim down to me, and presently they arrived. I immediately felt much better, as I reflected that my chances of being seized were now considerably lessened. When I had got half a dozen men down, we took the donkeys by the ears and tails, and half towed, half pushed them up-stream against the current, and successfully landed them, though certainly they were more dead than alive. I found that El Hakim and George had got the tents up, and that dinner was being prepared by the indefatigable Ramathani. I dried myself, and, putting on some clothing, went out in search of something edible in the way of meat. I saw no antelope, but I made a good shot with the ·303 at an adjutant stork (_Leptoptilus marabou_). The tail feathers, the Marabout feathers of commerce, were magnificent. This bird is a carrion-eater, and consorts with the vultures, so it was therefore not suitable for the pot. I cut off the large bag attached to the throat, in order to make a tobacco-pouch of it, but the dog sneaked it and, I believe, devoured it. We sat down to dinner in the moonlight, all three of us thoroughly tired out, but pleased at having conquered the formidable Athi. Now, I had in my possession a box of particularly atrocious cigars, which I had bought in a hurry on the day we left Nairobi as a surprise for El Hakim and George. They were somebody’s “Morning whiffs.” As far as the others were concerned, the surprise was complete, but they surprised me also, though I was half expecting something out of the common.