VIII 
VICIOUS ELEPHANTS AND A BUFFALO 89 
through the dry white reeds, I hastily fired and heard 
the dull thud of the bullet as it struck him in the 
flank. Off he went at full speed, and though we now 
had his blood spoor to assist us in tracking, he soon 
outstripped us and for a time we lost sight of him 
altogether. Our progess now became slow, for, 
apart from the difficulty of moving at any pace 
through the dense vegetation, it was imperative to 
exercise every precaution lest he should decide to 
wait in ambush and charge us, as a wounded buffalo 
sometimes will. Another fifteen minutes of wary 
pursuit brought us to where the belt of tall grass 
verged on the dry bed of the river, and we could see 
from his spoor that he had crossed this expanse of 
burning white sand and plunged into almost impene¬ 
trable bush on the other side. The prospect of 
following him into such a country was anything but 
pleasant, but as I always feel so averse to leaving a 
wounded animal to die a lingering death, I decided 
to continue the chase, to the bitter end. Turning 
to Chingondo, who, by the way, was every inch a 
sportsman, I asked him if he was game enough to face 
the very palpable difficulties ahead. ‘If you go, 
bwana, I will follow you. The country may be 
difficult, but in hunting one must not mind these 
trifles! ’ he replied, so in we plunged and once 
more settled down to the arduous work of tracking. 
The spoor now took us into a terrible patch of 
