And yet it lived with a life of its own.

Wild fowl flew in wedges from the sea to feed in its recesses, alligators and hippopotami splashed in the waters, bitterns boomed among the rushes, and from every pool and quagmire came the croaking of a thousand frogs.
"Yonder runs the slave road, or yonder it once ran," said Otter, pointing to the foot of a hill.
"Let us go and see," answered Leonard; "we can follow it for a while and camp." They climbed down the hill.

At its foot Otter cast backwards and forwards among the bushes like a hound.

Then he held up his hand and whistled.
"I thought so," he said, as the others drew near; "the path is still the same.

Look, Baas." As he spoke he broke down the branches of a creeping bush with his strong foot.