BELEPHANT FRIENDS AND: FOES 53 
runners to tell Mrs. Akeley. They arrived about six 
in the evening. It was our custom when separated 
to send notes to each other, or at least messages. 
When these boys came on to say that an elephant 
had got me, and when she found that there was no 
word from me, it looked bad. Mrs. Akeley sent word 
to the nearest government post for a doctor and 
started her preparations to come to me that night. 
She had to go after her guides, even into the huts of 
a native village, for they did not want to start at 
night. Finally, about midnight, she got under way. 
She pushed along with all speed until about daybreak, 
when the guides confessed that they were lost. At 
this juncture she was sitting on a log, trying to think 
what to do next. And then she heard my gun. She 
answered, but it was more than an hour before the 
sounds of her smaller rifle reached our camp. And 
about an hour after the boys heard her gun she ar- 
rived. 
She asked me how I was, and I said that I was all 
right. I noticed a peculiar expression on her face. 
If I had had a looking glass, I should probably have 
understood it better. One eye was closed and the 
forehead over it skinned. My nose was broken and 
my cheek cut so that it hung down, exposing my teeth. 
I was dirty all over, and from time to time spit blood 
from the hemorrhages inside. Altogether, I was an 
unlovely subject and looked hardly worth saving. 
But I did get entirely over it all, although it took me 
three months in bed. The thing that was serious was 
that the elephant had crushed several of my ribs 
