cii. x] STALKING A HERD 247 



conspicuous ; but they were too silent and cautious to 

 let the beasts see them, and could tell exactly where 

 they were and what they were doing by the sounds. 

 When these trackers waited for us they would appear 

 before us like ghosts. Once one of them dropped down 

 from the branches above, ha\'ing' climbed a tree with 

 monkey-like agility to get a glimpse of the great game. 

 At last w^e could hear the elephants, and under 

 Cuninghames lead we walked more cautiously than 

 ever. The wind was right, and the trail of one elephant 

 led close alongside that of the rest of the herd, and 

 parallel thereto. It was about noon. The elephants 

 moved slowdy, and we listened to the boughs crack and 

 now and then to the ciu'ious internal rumblings of the 

 great beasts. Carefully, every sense on the alert, we 

 kept pace with them. JNly double-barrel was in my 

 hands, and wherever possible, as 1 followed the trail, I 

 stepped in the huge footprints of the elephant, for 

 where such a weight had pressed there were no sticks 

 left to crack under my feet. It made our veins thrill 

 thus for half an hour to creep stealthily along, but a 

 few rods from the herd, never able to see it, because of 

 the extreme denseness of the cover, but always hearing 

 first one and then another of its members, and always 

 trying to guess what each one might do and keeping 

 ceaselessly ready for whatever might befall. A flock of 

 liornbills Hew up with noisy clamour, but the elephants 

 did not heed them. 



At last we came in sight of the mighty game. The 

 trail took a twist to one side, and there, thirty yards in 

 front of us, we made out part of the grey and massive 

 head of an elephant resting his tusks on the branches 

 of a young tree. A couple of minutes passed before, 

 by cautious scrutiny, we were able to tell whether the 



