346 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
camp when we saw a white man in the trail ahead; and on 
coming nearer whom should it prove to be but Carl Akeley, 
who was out on a trip for the American Museum of Natural 
History in New York. We went with him to his camp, 
where we found Mrs. Akeley, Clark, who was assisting him, 
and Messrs. McCutcheon and Stevenson who were along 
on a hunting trip. They were old friends and I was very 
glad to see them. McCutcheon, the cartoonist, had been 
at a farewell lunch given me by Robert Collier just before I 
left New York, and at the lunch we had been talking much 
of George Ade, and the first question I put to him was 
''Where is George Ade?” for if one unexpectedly meets an 
American cartoonist on a hunting trip in mid-Africa there 
seems no reason why one should not also see his crony, 
an American playwright. A year previously Mr. and Mrs. 
Akeley had lunched with me at the White House, and we 
had talked over our proposed African trips. Akeley, an old 
African wanderer, was going out with the especial purpose 
of getting a group of elephants for the American Museum, 
and was anxious that I should shoot one or two of them 
for him. I had told him that I certainly would if it were 
a possibility; and on learning that we had just seen a herd 
of cows he felt—as I did—that the chance had come for me to 
fulfil my promise. So we decided that he should camp with 
us that night, and that next morning we would start with 
a light outfit to see whether we could not overtake the herd. 
An amusing incident occurred that evening. After dark 
some of the porters went through the reeds to get water from 
the pond in the middle of the swamp. I was sitting in my 
tent when a loud yelling and screaming rose from the swamp, 
and in rushed Kongoni to say that one of the men, while 
