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AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
us through. The day I shot the giraffe the porters carrying 
the skin fell behind, and never got in until next morning. 
Coming back in the late twilight a party of the big zebra, 
their forms shadowy and dim, trotted up to us, evidently 
attracted by the horses, and accompanied us for some 
rods; and a hedgehog, directly in our path, kept bleating 
loudly, like an antelope kid. 
The day we spent in taking care of the giraffe skin we, 
of course, made no hunt. However, in the afternoon I 
sauntered upstream a couple of miles to look for croco¬ 
diles. I saw none, but I was much, interested in some 
zebra and waterbuck. The zebra were on the opposite 
side of the river, standing among some thorns, and at three, 
mid-afternoon, they came down to drink; up to this time 
I had generally found zebra drinking in the evening or at 
night. Then I saw some waterbuck, also on the opposite 
bank, working their way toward the river, and seeing a 
well-marked drinking-place ahead I hastened toward it, 
and sat down in the middle of the broad game trail leading 
down to the water on my side. I sat perfectly still, and 
my clothes were just the color of the ground, and the water- 
buck never noticed me, though I was in plain view when 
they drank, just opposite me, and only about fifty yards 
off. There were four cows and a bull. It was four o'clock 
in the afternoon. The cows came first, one by one, and 
were very alert and suspicious. Each continually stopped 
and stood motionless, or looked in every direction, and gave 
little false starts of alarm. When they reached the green 
grass by the water's edge each cropped a few mouthfuls, 
between times nervously raising its head and looking in 
every direction, nostrils and ears twitching. They were 
