'He is a queer character -- Alphonse,' he said.
'By and by I will tell you his history; in the meanwhile let us try his cooking.' 'Might I ask,' said Sir Henry, after we had eaten a most excellent dinner, 'how you came to have a French cook in these wilds ?' 'Oh,' answered Mrs Mackenzie, 'he arrived here of his own accord about a year ago, and asked to be taken into our service.
He had got into some trouble in France, and fled to Zanzibar, where he found an application had been made by the French Government for his extradition.

Whereupon he rushed off up-country, and fell in, when nearly starved, with our caravan of men, who were bringing us our annual supply of goods, and was brought on here.
You should get him to tell you the story.' When dinner was over we lit our pipes, and Sir Henry proceeded to give our host a description of our journey up here, over which he looked very grave.
'It is evident to me,' he said, 'that those rascally Masai are following you, and I am very thankful that you have reached this house in safety.

I do not think that they will dare to attack you here.

It is unfortunate, though, that nearly all my men have gone down to the coast with ivory and goods.

There are two hundred of them in the caravan, and the consequence is that I have not more than twenty men available for defensive purposes in case they should attack us.