142 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



They took up the trail and went some little distance into the 

 papyrus, where we heard them give tongue, and immedi- 

 ately afterward there came the angry grunt of the wounded 

 buffalo. It had risen and gone off thirty yards into the 

 papyrus, although mortally wounded the frothy blood 

 from the lungs was actually coming out of my first bullet- 

 hole. Its anger now made it foolish, and it followed the 

 dogs to the edge of the papyrus. Here we caught a glimpse 

 of it. Down it went to our shots, and in a minute we heard 

 the moaning bellow which a wounded buffalo often gives be- 

 fore dying. Immediately afterward we could hear the dogs 

 worrying it, while it bellowed again. It was still living as I 

 came up, and though it evidently could not rise, there was a 

 chance of its damaging one of the dogs, so I finished it off 

 with a shot from the Winchester. Heller reached it that af- 

 ternoon, and the skin and meat were brought in by the porters 

 before nightfall. 



Cuninghame remained with the body while the rest of 

 us rode off and killed several different animals we wanted. 

 In the afternoon I returned, having a vaguely uncomfort- 

 able feeling that as it grew dusk the buffalo might possi- 

 bly make their appearance again. Sure enough, there they 

 were. A number of them were in the open plain, although 

 close to the swamp, a mile and a half beyond the point 

 where the work of cutting up the cow was just being fin- 

 ished, and the porters were preparing to start with their 

 loads. It seemed very strange that after their experience in 

 the morning any of the herd should be willing to come into 

 the open so soon. But there they were. They were grazing 

 to the number of about a dozen. Looking at them through 

 the glasses I could see that their attention was attracted to 



