ELEPHANT SHOOTING 



elephant, and he came charging down on us like a hurri- 

 cane. I had only just time to dive head first into the 

 dense wall of thorny scrub as the animal dashed by, and 

 fully expected to find half my followers laid out, but to 

 my surprise and relief no one was hurt, they having bolted 

 in all directions like rabbits, the only damage being a 

 broken plate or two in the tiffin basket. 



Native fashion, the others of course abused the tiffin 

 basket cooly for dropping his basket instead of carefully 

 placing it down before bolting, entirely forgetful of the 

 fact that they, one and all, "stood not on the order of 

 their going." 



I fancy the heavy pounding the elephant had received 

 must have dazed him, hence our lucky escape ; otherwise, 

 if he had been fully alive he could have picked us out at 

 his leisure and made mincemeat of somebody. 



Once more we pursued him, and found him not far 

 away, standing just outside another piece of scrub. 



I made my way straight towards him over trampled- 

 down thorns and undergrowth, which made very awkward 

 walking, and fired at him at about 6 yards' distance, which 

 once more failed to floor him but provoked another charge. 

 In trying to get out of his way I stumbled and fell right in 

 front of him, my feet being so held by the trampled thorns 

 and twigs that I could not at the moment get up. The 

 elephant fumbled about my body with his trunk, trying to 

 pick me up, but only succeeded in pushing me to one side, 

 after which he seemed to hesitate a bit and then walked 

 over me without doing me any hurt, the blood pouring out 

 of his trunk, making a ghastly mess of my clothes, for I 

 got the benefit of a lot of it as he passed. 



He then went slowly on and I was keen enough to 

 follow, but had only one .577 cartridge left, so allowed 



125 



