To Lake Albert Edward 189 



bullet through his forehead at a distance of one pace only, which, 

 however, only caused the elephant to kneel down and try to bore 

 Mambo with his tusks. Unsuccessful in this, he seized the youth 

 by the straps of the cartridge pouch, and tossed him high into 

 the air. 



I was unaware of these proceedings, as in my attempts to let 

 the elephant pass I had slipped aside and fallen in the swampy 

 ground again, where I stuck fast and could not move. I heard 

 the cries and whimpers of my boy, and naturally struggled with 

 all my might to free myself from the sludge and run to his aid. 

 At the same moment the colossal form of the elephant burst 

 crashing out of the matete, making straight for me. Fortunately 

 a small shrub concealed me from his view ; but to my dismay, 

 lying on the elephant's tusks and held firmly by its rolled trunk, 

 I observed a black body covered with tom-up reeds and grasses, 

 and saw in a flash that Mambo was in a desperate fix. We were 

 both in a most perilous position. If I succeeded in giving the 

 elephant a mortal wound, and it fell to the ground, my boy's 

 body would invariably be crushed. I had seen this occur in the 

 case of a female elephant and her young. Should the elephant 

 not succumb, he would doubtless first kill the boy and then me, 

 as in my helpless condition I was practically at his mercy. 



All these considerations flashed through my brain like a streak 

 of lightning, but the elephant anticipated my conclusions, for 

 when he was only five paces distant from me he seized Mambo 

 firmly, and threw him some yards away into the tall grass, where 

 the unfortunate wight lay groaning. Then, extending his ears 

 wide, he rushed madly past me, a small bush alone dividing us, 

 and disappeared in the tnatete. Mambo owed his life solely to 

 the fact of the creature being badly injured, as, if the elephant 

 had been in the possession of his full power, he would have not 

 omitted the practice of his kind of trampling his enemy to death. 

 These last efforts had no doubt overtaxed the severely 

 wounded animal. A little later we heard it collapse and succumb 

 with long-drawn, wailing sounds. 



Having at length succeeded in extricating myself from the 



