When John found opportunity to put pen to paper, he wrote, as he said, "loads" to a school chum about the incidents of the next few days, every one furnishing a new excitement. Mr. Halliday was so anxious to accomplish the aim of his journey that he pushed on resolutely each day, striking camp at earliest dawn, marching with intervals until ten, resting until three or four, and then going on again until nightfall. The ground was varied, now a stretch of grass land, now a belt of forest; here a rapidly flowing stream rushing between high banks covered with dense vegetation, there a tract of hard volcanic soil so rugged and hot under the sun’s rays that walking was painful. It was only during the intervals for rest that John was able to indulge his sporting tastes, and at the same time do service to the commissariat. He caught some fine fish in the rivers, and wished there had been time to follow up the hippopotamus tracks he discovered on the banks. He brought down several water-buck and red congoni with his .303 rifle, and one day was vastly excited to see a black-maned lion with his lioness cross from one patch of reeds to another. The sight of other game in wonderful variety--zebras, leopards, antelopes--became so common that after a time it ceased to be impressive, and opportunities for shooting them came but rarely, the country they frequented being flat and open, and their scent being so keen that it was almost impossible to come within range. One incident that gave a little excitement was the crossing of the Thika river. The water was so deep and the current so swift that to ford it was impossible, and after vainly searching for a shallow part, Mr. Halliday confessed himself at a loss to know how to proceed. John suggested that they should fell a tree and throw it across the river as a bridge, but this would be a somewhat lengthy operation; and Said Mohammed said it would take less time to construct a raft. This was accordingly done, by lashing together three dead logs found on the bank; but Mr. Halliday asked how it was to be prevented from being swept away by the stream. Coja showed himself to be a man of resource. Taking a rope between his teeth, he plunged into the river, first looking warily round to make sure that no crocodiles were in the neighbourhood, and swam across, the force of the current giving his course an inclination of sixty degrees. Having reached the other side, he fastened the rope to a tree, and by aid of this line the raft was ferried over, conveying now the loads and now the men. One of the Wakamba slipped off when he was in midstream, and instantly howled that a crocodile was after him; but Coja called him a liar, sprang after him, and catching him by the hair, towed him safely to the farther bank. [Illustration: "One of the Wakamba slipped off when he was in midstream."]