respectable gunbearer. In addition, he must keep cool. He must see
clearly in the thickest excitement; must be ready unobtrusively to pass
up the second gun in the position most convenient for immediate use, to
seize the other and to perform the finicky task of reloading correctly
while some rampageous beast is raising particular thunder a few yards
away. All this in absolute dependence on the ability of his bwana to
deal with the situation. I can confess very truly that once or twice
that little unobtrusive touch of Memba Sasa crouched close to my elbow
steadied me with the thought of how little right I-with a rifle in
my hand-had to be scared. And the best compliment I ever received I
overheard by chance. I had wounded a lion when out by myself, and
had returned to camp for a heavier rifle and for Memba Sasa to do the
trailing. From my tent I overheard the following conversation between
Memba Sasa and the cook:

"The grass is high," said the cook. "Are you not afraid to go after a
wounded lion with only one white man?"

"My one white man is enough," replied Memba Sasa.

It is a quality of courage that I must confess would be quite beyond
me-to depend entirely on the other fellow, and not at all on myself.
This courage is always remarkable to me, even in the case of the
gunbearer who knows all about the man whose heels he follows. But
consider that of the gunbearer's first experience with a stranger. The
former has no idea of how the white man will act; whether he will get
nervous, get actually panicky, lose his shooting ability, and generally
mess things up. Nevertheless, he follows his master in, and he stands
by. If the hunter fails, the gunbearer will probably die. To me it is
rather fine: for he does it, not from the personal affection and loyalty
which will carry men far, but from a sheer sense of duty and pride of
caste. The quiet pride of the really good men, like Memba Sasa, is easy
to understand.

And the records are full of stories of the white man who has not made
good: of the coward who bolts, leaving his black man to take the brunt
of it, or who sticks but loses his head. Each new employer must be
very closely and interestedly scrutinized. In the light of subsequent
experience, I can no longer wonder at Memba Sasa's first detached and
impersonal attitude.

As time went on, however, and we grew to know each other better, this
attitude entirely changed. At first the change consisted merely in
dropping