250 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
cows and calves, but including two big herd bulls. At 
once we took up the trail. Cuninghame and his bush 
people consulted again and again, scanning every track 
and mark with minute attention. The sign showed that 
the elephants had fed in the shambas early in the night, 
had then returned to the mountain, and stood in one place 
resting for several hours, and had left this sleeping ground 
some time before we reached it. After we had followed the 
trail a short while we made the experiment of trying to 
force our own way through the jungle, so as to get the wind 
more favorable; but our progress was too slow and noisy, 
and we returned to the path the elephants had beaten. 
Then the ’Ndorobo went ahead, travelling noiselessly and at 
speed. One of them was clad in a white blanket, and an¬ 
other in a red one, which were conspicuous; but they 
were too silent and cautious to let the beasts see them, 
and could tell exactly where they were and what they were 
doing by the sounds. When these trackers waited for us 
they would appear before us like ghosts; once one of them 
dropped down from the branches above, having climbed 
a tree with monkey-like agility to get a glimpse of the great 
game. 
At last we could hear the elephants, and under Cuning- 
hame’s lead we walked more cautiously than ever. The 
wind was right, and the trail of one elephant led close along¬ 
side that of the rest of the herd, and parallel thereto. It 
was about noon. The elephants moved slowly, and we 
listened to the boughs crack, and now and then to the 
curious internal rumblings of the great beasts. Carefully, 
every sense on the alert, we kept pace with them. My 
double-barrel was in my hands, and wherever possible, as 
