vni VICIOUS ELEPHANTS AND A BUFFALO 89 



through the dry white reeds, I hastily fired and heard 

 the dull thud of the bullet as it struck him in the 

 flank. Off he went at full speed, and though we now 

 had his blood spoor to assist us in tracking, he soon 

 outstripped us and for a time we lost sight of him 

 altogether. Our progess now became slow, for, 

 apart from the difficulty of moving at any pace 

 through the dense vegetation, it was imperative to 

 exercise every precaution lest he should decide to 

 wait in ambush and charge us, as a wounded buffalo 

 sometimes will. Another fifteen minutes of wary 

 pursuit brought us to where the belt of tall grass 

 verged on the dry bed of the river, and we could see 

 from his spoor that he had crossed this expanse of 

 burning white sand and plunged into almost impene- 

 trable bush on the other side. The prospect of 

 following him into such a country was anything but 

 pleasant, but as I always feel so averse to leaving a 

 wounded animal to die a lingering death, I decided 

 to continue the chase, to the bitter end. Turning 

 to Chingondo, who, by the way, was every inch a 

 sportsman, I asked him if he was game enough to face 

 the very palpable difficulties ahead. ' If you go, 

 bwana, I will follow you. The country may be 

 difficult, but in hunting one must not mind these 

 trifles ! ' he replied, so in we plunged and once 

 more settled down to the arduous work of tracking. 

 The spoor now took us into a terrible patch of 



