45 



CHAPTER IX. 



A DISAGREEABLE EXPERIENCE. 



I reached camp first, soon to be followed by my 

 companions, whose success had been numerically 

 equal to my own ; but I bore the palm as to the 

 weight of ivory taken. Each had his adventures 

 to narrate, but Selwin's must have been more than 

 exciting, for an elephant, after having received three 

 shots, charged, and that so suddenly and rapidly that no 

 chance of escape was left my companion but to throw 

 himself into some brush and there remain until the 

 infuriated beast left. Such means of escape are never 

 adopted but upon the most pressing emergencies, and 

 then the odds are that they are not successful, for an 

 elephant has as keen scent for a man as a setter or 

 pointer for a grouse or partridge. Sunday confided 

 to me that Mr. Selwin would never do for elephant 

 shooting, for " he altogether too foolish." And 

 Sunday was right. Until his death my friend's 

 carelessness, or rather recklessness, caused me an 

 unceasing amount of anxiety. 



My shoulder next day was in such a contused 

 state that I was absolutely unfit to go in pursuit of 

 big game, so I fear I not only anathematised the gun- 

 maker who built the gun that had been the cause, 



