"What a constitution I must have, doctor! The smell of that cooking outside is making me ravenous." "Your constitution is still sound if you would only respect it," was the comforting assurance.
"Anything been heard of the rest of my party ?" Dominey enquired.
"Some bodies of Askaris have been washed up from the river," the doctor informed him, "and two of your ponies have been eaten by lions.

You will excuse.

I have the wounds of a native to dress, who was bitten last night by a jaguar." The traveller, left alone, lay still in the hut, and his thoughts wandered backwards.

He looked out over the bare, scrubby stretch of land which had been cleared for this encampment to the mass of bush and flowering shrubs beyond, mysterious and impenetrable save for that rough elephant track along which he had travelled; to the broad-bosomed river, blue as the sky above, and to the mountains fading into mist beyond.
The face of his host had carried him back into the past.

Puzzled reminiscence tugged at the strings of memory.