u 



jovo! — jovo!" 195 



meter at the end of half an hour showed 109° in the 

 shade, and here I finished my third bottle of water, 

 and had a good pull out of the last. My men, too, 

 finished all theirs. When I stood up and said it was 

 time to go on, they seemed inclined to return, say- 

 ing the elephants had gone a long way, and we 

 should all die of thirst, and perhaps have to sleep 

 out. I told Moloka that I was determined to go on, 

 and asked him what he would do. His reply was, 

 " If master go, Moloka go — by-and-by master die, 

 then Moloka die too. Moloka no want go boaty and 

 tell Mr. Young he leave English Lion dead." (He al- 

 ways called both Reid and myself English lions, on 

 account of our beards.) On my asking Chinsoro if 

 he could do without water till night, he said he did 

 not know, but he would try. Then, without saying 

 a word to the other three, I took up the spoor and 

 went on, and they followed without a murmur. 



After half an hour's hard walking, during which 

 some of the tracking was difficult, owing to the stony 

 nature of the ground, we left the forest and entered a 

 prairie of long grass, standing in many places over fif- 

 teen feet high, with a solitary tree here and there. 

 As we got further into it the grass became less thick, 

 and was so dry and brittle that I almost feared to 

 fire a shot, lest it should take fire and force us out, 

 or maybe burn us to death. Suddenly and unex- 

 pectedly a loud trumpet burst upon my ears, and 

 all the natives stopping short, whispered " Jovo !— 

 jovo !" The elephants were evidently not far ahead, 

 and as there was a high tree close to us at the 

 time, I went to it, and soon saw from its topmost 



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