down, and rest our backs against the bole of the tree. This done I went
back to the camp and ate my supper. About nine o'clock, half-an-hour
before the moon-rise, I summoned Gobo, who, thinking that he had seen
about enough of the delights of big game hunting for that day, did not
altogether relish the job; and, despite his remonstrances, gave him my
eight-bore to carry, I having the .570-express. Then we set out for
the tree. It was very dark, but we found it without difficulty, though
climbing it was a more complicated matter. However, at last we got up
and sat down, like two little boys on a form that is too high for
them, and waited. I did not dare to smoke, because I remembered the
rhinoceros, and feared that the elephants might wind the tobacco if they
should come my way, and this made the business more wearisome, so I fell
to thinking and wondering at the completeness of the silence.

"At last the moon came up, and with it a moaning wind, at the breath of
which the silence began to whisper mysteriously. Lonely enough in the
newborn light looked the wide expanse of mountain, plain, and forest,
more like some vision of a dream, some reflection from a fair world of
peace beyond our ken, than the mere face of garish earth made soft with
sleep. Indeed, had it not been for the fact that I was beginning to find
the log on which I sat very hard, I should have grown quite sentimental
over the beautiful sight; but I will defy anybody to become sentimental
when seated in the damp, on a very rough beam of wood, and half-way up
a tree. So I merely made a mental note that it was a particularly lovely
night, and turned my attention to the prospect of elephants. But no
elephants came, and after waiting for another hour or so, I think that
what between weariness and disgust, I must have dropped into a gentle
doze. Presently I awoke with a start. Gobo, who was perched close to me,
but as far off as the beam would allow--for neither white man nor black
like the aroma which each vows is the peculiar and disagreeable property