CHAPTER VIII. 



BACK TO AFRICA. 



HURSDAY and I returned to Africa laden with 

 the spoils of our hunting trips in Borneo, and 

 he, at least, well pleased to find himself once 

 more in the African jungle. One night, as we were 

 returning to camp from a hard tramp after a gorilla 

 through swamp and forest, my guide, himself so weary 

 that he leaned upon his bow, using it like a cane, stopped 

 short, and motioned me to do the same. 



" Listen," said he. 



I could hear the distant calls of jackals and the usual 

 thousand noises of forest life, but nothing else, and I felt 

 that he must hear something that my duller ears could 

 not. After a few moments of silence, during which 

 Thursday's face expressed a growing astonishment, he 

 condescended to explain. 



" There are a number of elephants in front of us, — in 

 fact, a whole kraal." 



Kraal means '' village " and, by wider usage, " tribe." 



" How ca-n you tell ? I hear nothing." 



" But I hear their cries. Let us advance quietly so as 

 not to attract their attention." 



