ch. xxx A FEW THRILLS AT BANGALLA RIVER 259 
away to the pori (forest) to try my luck, but, 
disappointed at meeting with no fresh elephant 
spoor during the first three days, I decided to return 
to camp and provision my party for fifteen days, 
a period which would enable me to scour all the 
country towards the source of the river near the 
Kibali Hill. 
But the best laid schemes of mice and men gang 
aft agley! We had just left a small water-hole in 
the neighbourhood of which we had slept overnight, 
and were hopeful of reaching camp in a few hours, 
when, to our intense joy, we came across the fresh 
spoor of three large elephants. Broken branches, 
the freshly expectorated fibre of chewed hemp 
leaves, as well as the presence of comparatively 
warm droppings, gave us unmistakable evidence 
that they had passed by quite recently, so we fell 
into our customary formation and followed the spoor. 
After about an hour s tracking through seemingly 
interminable glades of tall dry grass and rustling 
bamboos, we all at once came up with our quarry, 
standing in a group, their dark, hulking bodies 
clearly discernible through the interlacement of 
vegetation. One of them, as if lost in elephantine 
meditation, was standing in a beautiful position for 
placing a shot ; the other two, quite heedless of the 
approaching danger, were placidly feeding among 
the bamboos. I took most deliberate aim at the 
s 2 
