50 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
myself being carried by the shoulders and legs. Later 
again I had a lucid spell and realized that I was lying 
in one of the porter’s tents, and I got clarity of mind 
enough to ask where my wife was. The boys an- 
swered that she was back in camp. That brought 
the events back to me, how I had left her at camp, 
found the trail of the three old bulls, followed them 
and, finally, how I was knocked out. I was entirely 
helpless. I could move neither my arms nor legs and 
I reached the conclusion that my back was broken. 
I could not move, but I felt no pain whatever. How- 
ever, my coldness and numbness brought to my mind 
a bottle of cocktails, and I ordered one of the boys to 
bring it to me. My powers of resistance must have 
been very low, for he poured all there was in the bot- 
tle down my throat. In the intervals of conscious- 
ness, also, I got them to give me hot bovril—a British 
beef tea—and quinine. The result of all this was that 
the cold and numbness left me. I moved my arms. 
The movement brought pain, but I evidently wasn’t 
entirely paralyzed. I moved my toes, then my feet, 
then my legs. ‘“‘Why,” I thought in some surprise, 
“my back isn’t broken at all!’ So before I dropped off 
again for the night I knew that I had some chance of 
recovery. The first time I regained consciousness 
in the morning, I felt that Mrs. Akeley was around. 
I asked the boys if she had come. They said no, 
and I told them to fire my gun every fifteen minutes. 
Then I dropped off into unconsciousness again and 
awoke to see her sitting by me on the ground. 
When the elephant got me, the boys had sent two 
