cH. xi] RUBBER VINES 807 



Sometimes I left camp with my sais and gun-bearer 

 before dawn, starting in the light of the waning moon, 

 and riding four or five hours before halting to wait for 

 the safari. On the way I had usually shot something 

 for the table — a waterbuck, impalla, or gazelle. On 

 other occasions Cuninghame and T woidd spend the 

 day hunting in the waterless country back of the river, 

 where the heat at midday was terrific. We might not 

 reach camp until after nightfall. Once, as we came to 

 it in the dark, it seemed as if ghostly arms stretched 

 abo\'e it ; for on this evening the tents had been pitched 

 under trees up which huge rubber vines had climbed, 

 and their massive dead white trunks and branches 

 glinnnered pale and ghostly in the darkness. 



Twice my gim-bearers tried to show me a cheetah ; 

 but my eyes were too slow to catcli the animal before it 

 bounded off' in safety among the bushes. Another 

 time, after an excellent bit of tracking, the gun-bearers 

 brought me up to a buffalo bull, standing for his noon- 

 day rest in the leafless thorns a mile from the river. I 

 thought 1 held the heavy Holland straight for his 

 shoulder, but I must have fired high, for, though he 

 fell to the shot, he recovered at once. We followed 

 the blood-spoor for an liour, the last part of the time 

 when the trail wandered among and through the heavy 

 thickets under the trees on the river banks. Here I 

 walked beside the tracker with my rifle at full cock, for 

 we could not tell at what instant we might be charged. 

 But his trail finally crossed the river, and as he was 

 going stronger and stronger, we had to abandon the 

 chase. In the waterless country, away from the river, 

 we found little except herds of zebra, of both kinds, 

 occasional oryx and eland, and a few giraffe. A stallion 

 of the big kangani zebra which I shot stood fourteen 



