CHAPTER VIII.
MEETING COLONEL ROOSEVELT IN THE UTTERMOST OUTPOST OF SEMI-CIVILIZATION.
HE TALKS OF MANY THINGS, HEARS THAT HE HAS BEEN REPORTED DEAD, AND PROMPTLY PLANS AN ELEPHANT HUNT After one has been in British East Africa two months he begins to readjust his preconceived ideas to fit real conditions.

He discovers that nothing is really as bad as he feared it would be, and that distance, as usual, has magnified the terrors of a far-away land.

In spite of the fact that he is in the heart of a primitive country, surrounded by native tribes that still are mystified by a glass mirror, and perhaps many days' march from the nearest white person, he still may feel that he is in touch with the great world outside.

His mail reaches him somehow or other, even if he is in the center of some vast unsettled district devoid of roads or trails.
How it is done is a mystery; but the fact remains that every once in a while a black man appears as by magic and hands one a package containing letters and telegrams.

He is a native "runner," whose business it is to find you wherever you may be, and he does it, no matter how long it may take him.