"Where are they?" Rogala and I inquired at the same time.
"Not far from here," he said, speaking with difficulty, for he was much out of breath.
We took our guns, I taking "Bulldog" with me. We had hardly walked an hour in the path, when we came upon numerous elephant tracks.
"They have gone towards the river," whispered Shinshooko, as he looked in the direction in which their footprints pointed.
When we came to the river, we saw the canoe with several paddles. It did not take us long to embark, and we paddled so noiselessly down the stream that our paddles could not be heard as they struck the water. Before coming to a bend which commanded the view of the river for a long distance, we landed to search further down. Shinshooko went to the extreme end of the point, where a better view could be obtained. In a short time he returned. I could see by his face that he had good news to tell us. He had seen the elephants.
We followed the left bank of the river, and came to a place where we saw a herd of elephants standing close together. Foremost was a large bull elephant, their leader. I counted twenty-seven elephants. Their big ears were moving continually, and their trunks were swinging up and down. They were trumpeting and squealing. Some were very large. The bull seemed to be about ten and a half feet in height, some of the cows nine and a half feet.
Suddenly the bull made for the river. The others followed, and soon they had a grand time together in the water.
After watching them awhile, Rogala and Shinshooko whispered: "Oguizi, we must follow the river through the woods and get opposite the elephants." We walked through the jungle most carefully in order not to attract their attention. Fortunately they were having such a noisy time that they could not hear us. Nor could they scent us, as the wind was in our favor. When we surmised from the noise they made in the water that we were opposite them, we made for the banks of the river. Finally we got a glimpse of the elephants and crept to the water edge. The bank of the river here was high and abrupt, so the elephants could not charge us. I was very glad of this, for I never felt comfortable when the huge beast was bearing down upon me. It had been agreed beforehand that each one of us should pick out an elephant and that we should fire at the same time.