XX SEARCH FOR FRENCH 431 



hour after hour passed and he did not arrive, we 

 thought the elephant must have escaped him a 

 second time, and that he was still on her spoor. A 

 little before sunset, thinkins^ that he must then at 

 any rate have abandoned the pursuit, and would be 

 making for camp, the exact whereabouts of which he 

 perhaps did not know, I went out and fired two 

 shots with my heavy elephant rifle to guide him. 

 Later on I fired again, but heard no answering 

 reports. 



It must have been about eight o'clock when we 

 all heard a very distant shot right away in the 

 direction ot the river, which I at once answered. 

 Shortly afterwards we saw a grass fire burn up in 

 the direction from whence the shot had sounded. 

 Thinking that this fire had possibly been lighted by 

 French, either accidentally or as a signal, I called up 

 three of his Kafirs, and taking with me my large 

 rifle, walked towards its light. After walking about 

 an hour, and when still a long way from the fire, I 

 fired two shots, but got no answer. I then went 

 on until I got right up to where the fire was burning, 

 when I again fired, but heard nothing in reply. 1 

 now felt convinced that French had struck for the 

 river, and so returned to camp, which I did not 

 reach till lono; after midnight. I had been so fir 

 away that neither Miller nor any of the Kafirs had 

 heard my last two shots. 



We did not feel at all uneasy about French, as 

 we felt sure that he had made for the river — which 

 ran round us in a semicircle at a distance of not 

 more than fifteen miles, and thought he would sleep 

 there, and then follow up the broad footpath we had 

 made, the following day. Many things concurred to 

 make us think he had taken this step. In the first 



