At daylight we were up, and followed the path leading towards the place where we thought the gorillas had slept. We had walked several miles, and I was ahead of Rogala, when suddenly I thought I heard the breaking of branches ahead of me. Could it be possible that a camp of natives was on our way. I thought perhaps I had made a mistake, and that the noise had been made by elephants either breaking branches with their trunks or trampling in the jungle and breaking the saplings in their path. I lay flat, putting my ear to the ground, but did not hear the heavy footsteps of elephants. I got up and said to myself: "It is a heavy dead limb of a tree that fell and was the cause of the noise I heard." Nevertheless I walked more slowly to give time to Rogala to overtake me. I had gone but a little way when I heard the breaking of another sapling or tree-branch; then I stopped and waited for Rogala.
Soon after I saw him coming, and I gave the "click" warning, made with my tongue striking my palate.
At this sign Rogala stood still. I beckoned him to come to me. I could not hear his footsteps as he walked towards me. No leopard or night prowler in search of prey could have made less noise.
As he came near me, I put one of the fingers of my right hand upon my lips. This meant, "Be silent, do not say a word." Then I put my left hand to my ear; that meant, "Listen."
We remained silent looking anxiously at each other. Suddenly another breaking of a limb of a tree was heard. Rogala knew the cause of the noise, and whispered, "Ngina."
We looked at each other without saying a word, then looked at our guns. They were all right. Then Rogala took the lead, and followed the path, for the noise we heard came from that direction.
After a short walk we saw the branches of a tree moving and being swayed to and fro by the ngina. The tree was loaded with large fruits of the size of oranges. The monster was breaking the branches, and when they had fallen on the ground plucked the fruit.
The jungle was so thick around the tree that we could not see the huge creature. So we lay flat on the ground, and advanced towards the tree, separating the jungle on the right or on the left as we made our way towards the monster.