182 SAVAGE SUDAN 



clear, but in the long grass and bush both these made 

 good their escape. 



Everywhere the floor of this virgin forest was studded 

 with the tracks and the evidence of buffalo, their spoor 

 criss-crossing in an intricacy that forbade any individual 

 herd being followed beyond short distance. We had 

 the luck, however, to strike a trail which recalled one of 

 the old-time "drove-roads" of the Borders. Along this 

 we hastened, and after a while Baraka, bending low, 

 whispered Gamoos ( = buffalo). We realised that his savage 

 eyesight had surely descried the beasts, though to mine 

 (aided by prism binoculars) not an animate object was 

 distinguishable amid the welter of bush and bough, with 

 intercepted lights and shades, that lay in front. But well 

 we knew we were face to face with dangerous game, and 

 that sensation ever thrills. 



Since neither of us could detect the slightest vestige 

 of what our savage guide saw clearly enough, we 

 presently, with infinite caution, advanced towards a 

 5-foot conical ant-hill that stood 50 yards ahead. 

 Therefrom a meticulous survey revealed to me a single 

 darker blurr among the forest-shades beyond. The 

 blurr was quite inarticulate, but, were it a buffalo, then 

 the beast was standing end-on. But which end ? So 

 overshadowed was every detail by over-arching foliage 

 and a maze of intervening twiggery, that nothing 

 definite was revealed. Intently I watched that crucial 

 blurr till, after ages of suspense, a bough lifting in the 

 breeze admitted a sunray . . . and it glinted on horns, 

 great, rugged, corrugated horns. The buffalo, I now saw, 

 stood directly facing, and presently came to recognise the 

 broad sweep of his horns standing out clear on either 

 side of the huge four-square bulk. 



One awkward obstacle remained. The buffalo stood 

 somnolent at 100 yards; but exactly half-way between 

 us, a thick white horizontal bough interposed itself so 

 low as almost to cut the ridge of his spine. To be 



