296 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
and compelled us, dog-tired and disappointed, to 
pitch camp on the spoor. That night, being too 
worn out either to eat or sleep, I tossed restlessly 
on my stretcher till dawn bade me once more start, 
in spite of physical reluctance, on the tracks of the 
wounded elephant. By ten o’clock, we found that 
he had joined a herd of five other males, and now 
there followed some solid, dogged tramping, up hill 
and down dale, over sand and across marsh, 
through thorn-scrub, and bush and long grass! 
Twice I stopped to give my men a mixture of sugar 
and cocoa to brace them up against this arduous 
work, while I, myself, had recourse to a most 
welcome Thermos flask containing hot tea. Finally, 
towards five o’clock, the spoor became fresher, and 
we could see that the elephants had begun feeding. 
About this time, too, the herd divided, four of 
them taking to the long grass, the other two 
making for a python- and crocodile-infested swamp, 
into which it would have been folly to pursue them. 
I decided to follow up the four, and had not made 
much further progress, when the noise of a breaking 
tree disclosed their proximity, but, as the long grass 
completely hid them from our view, I climbed a 
small tree and from this point of vantage could see 
them browsing on the branches and foliage of the 
tree they had just smashed. As it was impossible, 
however, to aim at a vital spot in any of them 
