182 LARGE GAME. chap. iv. 



by the great thick stems, many of which were almost as 

 large as a bamboo. It was agreeably cool, but too silent 

 and sombre after the bright sunlight outside to be other- 

 wise pleasant, and it certainly was with a feeling, if not a 

 sigh, of relief, that I turned to come back. There was no 

 difficulty in this, as I had the elephant's tracks to guide 

 me, though I should have been puzzled to do so without 

 them, for every reed precisely resembled its neighbour, 

 every formation they assumed had its counterpart on 

 every side, and there was no shadow, no indication of 

 there even being a sun, all around being black, gloomy, 

 and still. 



A tropical twilight is but brief ; the sun is hardly set 

 before the long shadows of evening set in, and in a very 

 few minutes more the stars are shining, and it is night. 

 It had been late when I came into the reeds, and I had 

 penetrated far farther into them than I had intended, so 

 that before I had got half-way back it was already 

 almost dark. I hurried on, anxious to get out, although 

 the elephant's spoor, my only guide, was momentarily 

 becoming more indistinct, and then, all on a sudden, I 

 missed it entirely. No doubt I must have been a little 

 flurried, though at the time I did not think so, and tried 

 my best to hit it off again by going back on my own trail ; 

 but I must have gone wrong, as I could not find it, and it 

 soon became so dark that it was impossible to see any 

 marks whatever on the ground. I did my best under the 

 circumstances ; I stopped for a minute to consider, and 

 then, thinking that I knew the right direction, I tried to 

 keep straight on in it, guiding myself in doing so by a 

 slight breeze of wind that had risen with the declining 



