"Then I started on the spoor of the three bulls. For a couple of miles
or so below the kraal--as far, indeed, as the belt of swamp that borders
the river--the ground is at this spot rather stony, and clothed with
scattered bushes. Rain had fallen towards the daybreak, and this fact,
together with the nature of the soil, made spooring a very difficult
business. The wounded bull had indeed bled freely, but the rain had
washed the blood off the leaves and grass, and the ground being so
rough and hard did not take the footmarks so clearly as was convenient.
However, we got along, though slowly, partly by the spoor, and partly
by carefully lifting leaves and blades of grass, and finding blood
underneath them, for the blood gushing from a wounded animal often falls
upon their inner surfaces, and then, of course, unless the rain is very
heavy, it is not washed away. It took us something over an hour and a
half to reach the edge of the marsh, but once there our task became
much easier, for the soft soil showed plentiful evidences of the great
brutes' passage. Threading our way through the swampy land, we came
at last to a ford of the river, and here we could see where the poor
wounded animal had lain down in the mud and water in the hope of easing
himself of his pain, and could see also how his two faithful companions
had assisted him to rise again. We crossed the ford, and took up the
spoor on the further side, and followed it into the marsh-like
land beyond. No rain had fallen on this side of the river, and the
blood-marks were consequently much more frequent.

"All that day we followed the three bulls, now across open plains, and
now through patches of bush. They seemed to have travelled on almost
without stopping, and I noticed that as they went the wounded bull
recovered his strength a little. This I could see from his spoor, which
had become firmer, and also from the fact that the other two had ceased