About One O'clock A Messenger Came Into Camp Reporting
That The Men Under Mavrouki Had Traced A Herd To Its Lying-Down
Place.
We took our heavy guns and started.
The way led through thin scrub up the long slope of a hill that
broke on the other side into undulating grass ridges that ended
in a range of hills. These were about four or five miles distant,
and thinly wooded on sides and lower slopes with what resembled a
small live-oak growth. Among these trees, our guide told us, the
buffalo had first been sighted.
The sun was very hot, and all the animals were still. We saw
impalla in the scrub, and many giraffes and bucks on the plains.
After an hour and a half's walk we entered the parklike groves at
the foot of the hills, and our guide began to proceed more
cautiously. He moved forward a few feet, peered about, retraced
his steps. Suddenly his face broke into a broad grin. Following
his indication we looked up, and there in a tree almost above us
roosted one of our boys sound asleep! We whistled at him.
Thereupon he awoke, tried to look very alert, and pointed in the
direction we should go. After an interval we picked up another
sentinel, and another, and another until, passed on thus from one
to the next, we traced the movements of the herd. Finally we came
upon Mavrouki and Simba under a bush. From them, in whispers, we
learned that the buffalo were karibu sana-very near; that they
had fed this far, and were now lying in the long grass just
ahead.
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