Chapter 4

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.