Lake Victoria to Khartoum 



and follow him up. He was very hard hit and 

 might not be able to travel far, but on the other 

 hand he would be in a shocking temper, and the 

 others would be on the qui vive to give him a 

 hand in warning him of the proximity of danger. 



So without wasting a moment we set off towards 

 a tree on the rising ground for which he appeared 

 to be making. On climbing this tree our orderly 

 could see nothing in the shape of an elephant, 

 and we were just going to cross the valley ahead 

 — here about a mile broad — on the chance of 

 viewing him, when it struck me that it would be 

 very much safer and, although slower, surer to get 

 on their spoor and follow it up rather than dash 

 off haphazard on his supposed line. If he was 

 bad he might go down to the water, as they 

 often do, or if not he might trek hard in any 

 other direction. 



It was by the mercy of Providence that we 

 did strike their tracks, as they went off in quite 

 the opposite way to that which we had supposed — 

 up one of the valleys before mentioned. One 

 of my gun-bearers knew the country here very 

 well, and informed me that this valley led into 

 a cul-de-sac, where the high mountain ridge 

 fell abruptly to the river at one of its deepest 

 places, so that there was no chance of the animals 

 being able to wade across on the shallows and 

 rapids as they often do. He couldn't understand 

 it, he said, unless (and here our drooping spirits 



264 



