114 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



"White eyes, sir!" — a Kafir idiom for "What a 

 narrow escape ! " I told them to take up my spoor, 

 so that I might get my hat and then follow up the bull, 

 from which I had been driven away, as I felt sure he 

 had not gone very far after receiving the last shot. 

 Just as we were starting Nuta called out, " Look at 

 the dust ; there they go ! " and on doing so, I saw 

 a cloud of dust rising above the bush some two 

 hundred yards away to our right, towards which, 

 thinking it was raised by the four cows, and that the 

 bull might still be with them, we at once ran. On 

 cutting the spoor, however, a glance showed us that 

 the cows were alone — the bull, I now felt sure, having 

 remained behind, too badly wounded to keep up 

 with them any longer. The cows were going at a 

 run, and, being probably satisfied with driving me 

 away, had left their wounded lord to his fate. 



Being pretty well fagged with the exertion to which 

 the old cow had put me, and feeling confident that the 

 wounded bull was not very far from where I had last 

 seen him, I sat down at the foot of a camel-thorn 

 tree, whilst one of my boys climbed up to see if he 

 could see him standing anywhere in the surrounding 

 bush. In about ten minutes he came down, not 

 having been able to make out anything, and we 

 started back, intending first of all to recover my 

 hat — of which I already felt the need, the sun 

 being intensely powerful — and then to take up the 

 spoor of the wounded elephant. We had gone 

 perhaps a hundred yards, when our attention was 

 arrested by some one shouting a short distance ahead. 

 We stopped to listen. Shortly after the shouts were 

 repeated, this time quite close. At the same moment 

 I saw the tops of some bushes in front shaking 

 violently, and then made out the outline of an 



