"Monuome, bwana! buck, master!" he cried as soon as he saw me, and made
a spiral gesture in imitation of the male's beautiful corkscrew horns.
While the men prepared the trophy, F. and I followed on after the other
four to see what they would do, and speedily came to the conclusion that
we were lucky to land two of the wily beasts. The four ran compactly
together and in a wide curve for several hundred yards. Then two faced
directly back, while the other two, one on either side, made a short
detour out and back to guard the flanks.
We did not get back to camp until after dark. A tremendous pair of
electric storms were volleying and roaring at each other across the
space of night; leopards were crying; a pack of wild dogs were barking
vociferously. The camp, as we approached it, was a globe of light in a
bower of darkness. The fire, shining and flickering on the under sides
of the leaves, lent them a strangely unreal stage-like appearance; the
porters, their half-naked bodies and red blankets catching the blaze,
roasted huge chunks of meat over little fires.
We ate a belated supper in comfort, peace, and satisfaction. Then the
storms joined forces and fell upon us.
XXX.
ADVENTURES BY THE WAY.
We journeyed slowly on down the stream. Interesting things happened to
us. The impressions of that journey are of two sorts: the little
isolated details and the general background of our day's routine, with
the gray dawn, the great heats of the day, the blessed evening and its
fireflies; the thundering of heaven's artillery, and the downpour of
torrents; the hot, high, crackling thorn scrub into which we made
excursions; the swift-flowing river with its palms and jungles;
outleaning palms trailing their fronds just within the snatch of the
flood waters; wide flats in the embrace of the river bends, or extending
into the low hills, grown thick with lush green and threaded with
rhinoceros paths; the huge sheer cliff mountains over the way; distant
single hills far down.
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