66 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



effect would have made the inventor of a patent 

 hair restorer hang his head with shame. 



Snatching my rifle, I rushed out of the tent 

 and stood listening. From the porters' shelter 

 low murmurings could be heard and through the 

 inky darkness I could see the camp-fires bright- 

 ening as the embers were scraped together and 

 kindling applied. In a few minutes the little 

 glade was aglow and through the flickering light 

 we saw the porters perched in the tops of the 

 trees. 



For an hour the elephants circled about, now 

 trumpeting, now roaring or bellowing, and the 

 thought that they might stampede into camp 

 at any moment was not particularly comforting. 

 Finally, the rumpus died away as the herd 

 slowly went toward the mountain, the porters 

 came down from their perches, and once more 

 everything was serene. 



The camp had just quieted down when a soli- 

 tary elephant began to serenade us. He almost 

 circled our tents, but finally left us by the lower 

 side, trumpeting loudly as he passed beyond 

 hearing. 



The following morning we packed up, found 

 the trail again, and were soon in the bamboo 



