CHAPTER XII 



THREE LIONS AND NO RIFLE ! 



On the first evening after my return to Koba I was 

 sitting in camp under the banda (a grass roof on poles) 

 enjoying a good hot dinner and a bottle of Dry Monopole 

 to wash it down. It was well on in the evening and the 

 boys were sitting around their fires chattering away, 

 when Monica came to me and said, " Bwana, Msungu 

 kuja " (master, a white man is coming). In a few 

 moments a native boy carrying a hurricane lamp emerged 

 from the grass and stood on the well-trodden sand of the 

 camping ground. Next moment a cheery voice rang 

 out — 



" Hallo, are you Cooper ? " 



Looking up in the faint light from my table lamp I 

 saw that my visitor was a complete stranger to me. 



" Yes, I am Cooper," I replied. 



" I am Longdon. I thought I must just come along 

 and look you up. How are you going on ? Any luck ? " 



That was my first meeting with Mr. Gerald Longdon, 

 another elephant hunter. When I was at home writing 

 the account of my trip the following appeared in the 

 London papers : — 



" Entebbe, Uganda. Mrs. Gerald Longdon has 

 reported to the Government that her husband has been 

 wounded by an elephant and has died in the Congo." 



The elephant hunters have lost in Mr. Longdon a 

 man who was one of the best of them, a man with a big 

 heart for black or white. We shall all miss him and his 



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