His four special porters to carry the cameras and
tripods--porters he had trained on previous safaris--were only
waiting for the word to move. Mr. Ray Ulyate, the white hunter to
the expedition, had already gone to Kijabe to prepare his
ox-wagons against our coming, and the Boma Trading Company had
engaged a special train to leave Nairobi on the fifth.
On the morning of that day we held the customary procession of an
outgoing safari down the main street of Nairobi to the waiting
train. The Colonel rode first, with the assorted pack of dogs at
his horse's heels. Then came the cowboys with the led horses;
then the picture department; then the long single line of black
porters, bringing up the rear. Above the loads on the porters'
heads two flags flashed their colors in the sunlight--the stars
and stripes, and the house flag of the company, with the white
buffalo skull against the red background, and underneath the
motto, Sapiens qui Vigilat.
The night had already fallen black and cold when the special
train crested the top of the divide and coasted down grade into
Kijabe. The most imposing structure in the place is the railroad
station, with its red wooden building propped up on piles, its
tin guest-house alongside, and the neat gravel platform growing a
clump of trees.
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