In Wildest Africa ^ 



slumbers with indifference, for they have little concern for 

 probable dangers. But the imaginative European is on 

 the look-out for peril — the thought of it holds and 

 fascinates him. . . . Somewhere in the distance, perhaps, 

 the heavens are illuminated with a bright light. Far, far 

 away a conflagration is raging, devastating miles upon 

 miles of the vale below. The sky reflects the light, which 

 blazes up now purple, now scarlet ! Often it will last 

 for days and nights, nay weeks, whole table-lands being 

 in flames and acting as giant beacons to light up the 

 landscape ! . . . My thoughts would turn towards the 

 bonfires which in Germany of old flashed their message 

 across the land — news, perhaps, of the burial of some 

 great prince. . . . So, now, it seemed to me that those 

 distant flames told of the last moments of some monarch 

 of the wild. 



At last I received good news. A huge bull-elephant 

 had been seen for a few minutes in the early morning 

 hours in the vicinity of the Kilepo Hill. This overjoyed 

 me, for I was quite certain that in a few days now we 

 should meet them above on the hill. 



I left my camp to the care of the greater part of my 

 caravan, but sent a good many of my men back into the 

 inhabited districts of the northern Kilimanjaro to get fresh 

 provisions from Useri. I myself went about a day's journey 

 up Kilepo Hill, accompanied by a few of my men, resolved 

 to get a picture coute que coute.\ 



It was characteristic of my scouts that they could only 

 give me details about elephants. As often as I asked 

 them about other game I could get nothing out of them, 



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