CH. X] 
STALKING A HERD 
247 
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 
Cuninghame’s lead we walked more cautiously than 
ever. The wind was right, and the trail of one elephant 
led close alongside 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 I followed the trail, I 
stepped in the huge footprints of the elephant, for 
where such a weight had pressed there were no sticks 
left to crack under my feet. It made our veins thrill 
thus for half an hour to creep stealthily along, but a 
few rods from the herd, never able to see it, because of 
the extreme denseness of the cover, but always hearing 
first one and then another of its members, and always 
trying to guess what each one might do and keeping 
ceaselessly ready for whatever might befall. A flock of 
hornbills flew up with noisy clamour, but the elephants 
did not heed them. 
At last we came in sight of the mighty game. The 
trail took a twist to one side, and there, thirty yards in 
front of us, we made out part of the grey and massive 
head of an elephant resting his tusks on the branches 
of a young tree. A couple of minutes passed before, 
by cautious scrutiny, we were able to tell whether the 
