156 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
They seized his cook as he lay by the fire, but fortunately 
grabbed his red blanket, which they carried off, and the 
terrified man escaped; and they killed a cow and a calf. 
Ulyate’s brother-in-law, Smith, had been rendered a hope¬ 
less cripple for life, six months previously, by a lioness he 
had wounded. Another settler while at one of our camping- 
places lost two of his horses, which were killed although 
within a boma. One night lions came within threatening 
neighborhood of our ox wagons; and we often heard them 
moaning in the early part of the night, roaring when full 
fed toward morning; but we were not molested. 
The safari was in high feather, for the days were cool, 
the work easy, and we shot enough game to give them 
meat. When we broke camp after breakfast, the porters 
would all stand ranged by their loads; then Tarlton would 
whistle, and a chorus of whistles, horns, and tomtoms would 
answer, as each porter lifted and adjusted his burden, fell 
into his place, and then joined in some shrill or guttural 
chorus as the long line swung off at its marching pace. 
After nightfall the camp-fires blazed in the cool air, and 
as we stood or sat around them each man had tales to 
tell: Cuninghame and Tarlton of elephant-hunting in the 
Congo, and of perilous adventures hunting lion and buffalo; 
Mearns of long hikes and fierce fighting in the steaming 
Philippine forests; Loring and Heller of hunting and col¬ 
lecting in Alaska, in the Rockies, and among the deserts of 
the Mexican border; and always our talk came back to 
strange experiences with birds and beasts, both great and 
small, and to the ways of the great game. The three 
naturalists revelled in the teeming bird life, with its wealth 
of beauty and color—nor was the beauty only of color 
