There was no mistake. The nginas were abreast of us, and we were not more than half a mile from each. But soon the voices or sounds gradually seemed to be ahead of us and became more and more distant. They had passed us.
"After they meet," said Rogala, "the female ngina, as it is getting late, will go up a tree to sleep with her baby if she has one, and the big fellow will sleep at the foot of the tree, his back resting against its trunk, and there keep watch. We will sleep in the forest to-night. We have koola nuts in our bags, and we will eat these for our evening and morning meals, and we will go after the nginas to-morrow at daybreak."
The nginas' tremendous voices gradually died away, till one might have thought it was the dying reverberation in the far distance of claps of thunder.
We slept at the foot of a large tree, and made a very small fire, for we did not dare to sleep without one. We had collected the firewood very quietly.
At daylight we were up, and followed the path leading towards the place where we thought the gorillas had slept. We had walked several miles, and I was ahead of Rogala, when suddenly I thought I heard the breaking of branches ahead of me. Could it be possible that a camp of natives was on our way. I thought perhaps I had made a mistake, and that the noise had been made by elephants either breaking branches with their trunks or trampling in the jungle and breaking the saplings in their path. I lay flat, putting my ear to the ground, but did not hear the heavy footsteps of elephants. I got up and said to myself: "It is a heavy dead limb of a tree that fell and was the cause of the noise I heard." Nevertheless I walked more slowly to give time to Rogala to overtake me. I had gone but a little way when I heard the breaking of another sapling or tree-branch; then I stopped and waited for Rogala.
Soon after I saw him coming, and I gave the "click" warning, made with my tongue striking my palate.
At this sign Rogala stood still. I beckoned him to come to me. I could not hear his footsteps as he walked towards me. No leopard or night prowler in search of prey could have made less noise.
As he came near me, I put one of the fingers of my right hand upon my lips. This meant, "Be silent, do not say a word." Then I put my left hand to my ear; that meant, "Listen."
We remained silent looking anxiously at each other. Suddenly another breaking of a limb of a tree was heard. Rogala knew the cause of the noise, and whispered, "Ngina."
We looked at each other without saying a word, then looked at our guns. They were all right. Then Rogala took the lead, and followed the path, for the noise we heard came from that direction.