HUMAN TREE-DWELLERS 119 



follow the tracks— sometimes entirely obliterating 

 them. Hence I worked forward slowly. I had 

 ceased to depend upon my men, though I kept two 

 up with me, leaving the others to come more leis- 

 urely with the packs, so that at nightfall we camped 

 where we happened to be— which was about as 

 good a plan as any other, for there was no choice 

 of camping ground in that country. 



All morning I followed the tracks with extreme 

 difficulty, but in the early afternoon they led to 

 drier ground, which as it approached the hilltop 

 became more open, and, far in advance of my two 

 men, I pushed my way along more rapidly, with 

 all attention focussed upon the tracks, and every 

 hunter's sense tingling in exquisite alertness. 

 Suddenly and noiselessly, a something seemed to 

 dodge behind a tree ; then another, and yet another 

 —and still a fourth— all in front and to right and 

 left of me. I saw no definite shape— merely 

 caught the glimpse of a moving object as the eye 

 will, without actually seeing it. I knew it could 

 not be a rhino. As I stood, I caught sight of a 

 black-topped head looking furtively at me from 

 behind a tree, but it popped back instantly on my 

 discovery. Then another head from behind 

 another tree, and again a third, and so on until it 

 became a game of hide and seek with some times 

 several heads poked out, turtle fashion, from be- 



