182 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
clear, but in the long- grass and bush both these made 
good their escape. 
Everywhere the floor of this virgin forest was studded 
with the tracks and the evidence of buffalo, their spoor 
criss-crossing in an intricacy that forbade any individual 
herd being followed beyond short distance. We had 
the luck, however, to strike a trail which recalled one of 
the old-time “drove-roads” of the Borders. Along this 
we hastened, and after a while Baraka, bending low, 
whispered Gamoos (= buffalo). We realised that his savage 
eyesight had surely descried the beasts, though to mine 
(aided by prism binoculars) not an animate object was 
distinguishable amid the welter of bush and bough, with 
intercepted lights and shades, that lay in front. But well 
we knew we were face to face with dangerous game, and 
that sensation ever thrills. 
Since neither of us could detect the slightest vestige 
of what our savage guide saw clearly enough, we 
presently, with infinite caution, advanced towards a 
5-foot conical ant-hill that stood 50 yards ahead. 
Therefrom a meticulous survey revealed to me a single 
darker blurr among the forest-shades beyond. The 
blurr was quite inarticulate, but, were it a buffalo, then 
the beast was standing end-on. But which end ? So 
overshadowed was every detail by over-arching foliage 
and a maze of intervening twiggery, that nothing 
definite was revealed. Intently I watched that crucial 
blurr till, after ages of suspense, a bough lifting in the 
breeze admitted a sunray . . . and it glinted on horns, 
great, rugged, corrugated horns. The buffalo, I now saw, 
stood directly facing, and presently came to recognise the 
broad sweep of his horns standing out clear on either 
side of the huge four-square bulk. 
One awkward obstacle remained. The buffalo stood 
somnolent at 100 yards ; but exactly half-way between 
us, a thick white horizontal bough interposed itself so 
low as almost to cut the ridge of his spine. To be 
