WE MARCH FOR THE MOUNTAINS 193 
for their midday rest, although the hour was hardly 
ten in the morning. 
From our “observation tower” in the tree we 
studied the three groups as well as we could. So 
far as we could judge there were at least three hulls 
of medium size, but as we looked those three lazily 
moved off toward the group on the extreme left. 
At that time we were within about a hundred yards 
The Policemen of the Plains 
of the nearest group with the wind still favorable, 
and except for one thing we might easily have crept 
up through the grass to within thirty or forty yards. 
Directly between us and the elephants were two 
kongoni, one lying down and the other alert and 
erect. 
The kongoni is the policeman of the plains. He 
is the self-appointed guardian of all the other ani¬ 
mals, and for some strange, unselfish reason, he 
