THE EQUIPMENT.
After it had been decided that we should start in search of '_He_ who
had been mummified alive,' the next step seemed to be to go. But
Leonora demurred to this.
'We must have our things,' she said; 'what do you think we should
take?'
'Scissors,' I replied; and I regret to say that at first she
misinterpreted the phrase.
Leonora is a powerful as well as a pretty girl, and when the bear fight
that ensued was over my rooms were a little mixed.
This suggested mixed biscuits, that invaluable refreshment of the
traveller, and from one thing to another we soon made up a complete
list of our needs.
The scissors, and skates, and the soap we procured at the Church and
State stores,[11] but not, of course, the revolvers. The revolvers we
got of the genuine Government pattern, because both Leonora and I are
dreadfully afraid of fire-arms, and we knew that _these_, anyhow, would
not 'go off.' The jam we got, of course, at the official cartridge
emporium, same which we did _not_ shoot the Arabs. The Gladstone bag
and the Bryant & May's matches we procured direct from the makers,
resisting the piteous appeals of itinerant vendors. Some life-belts we
laid in, and, as will presently be seen, we could have made no more
judicious purchase.
[11]
Won't the critics say you are advertising the stores? And the
tradesmen won't like it.--PUBLISHER.
Where would the _stern reality_ of the story be (see _Spectator_),
and the contrast with the later goings on, if you didn't give
names?--ED.
As, from information received on a mummy case, we were travelling in
search of a mummy, of course we laid in a case of Mumm, which was often
a source of gaiety in our darkest hours. The wine was procured, as I
would advise every African traveller to do, from Messrs. ----.[12]
[12]
Messrs. Who? Printers in a hurry.--PUBLISHER.
Suppressed the name. Messrs. ---- gave an impolite response to
our suggestions as to mutual arrangements.--ED.
Being acquainted with the deleterious effects of a malarious tropical
atmosphere, we secured a pair of overalls, advertised as sovran for
'all-overishness,' the dreaded curse of an African climate. These we
got at the celebrated emporium of Messrs. ----.[13]
[13]
Name suppressed. When eligible opportunity for advertisement
as a substitute for a cheque was hinted at, Messrs. ----
brusquely replied, in the low Essex _patois_, 'Wadyermean?'
Our preparations being now exhaustively completed, Leonora and I
returned to Oxford, packed our things, and consulted as to the route
which we should adopt.