ELEPHANT SHOOTING 



the thick scrubby thorn in front of us was smashed down 

 and the elephant was on us. The tracker seemed to make 

 a dive right into the bush, and I gave the elephant one in 

 the forehead as his head towered over me. It seemed to 

 delay him and I stept backwards, but something caught 

 my foot, the barrel of the rifle, which was still at my 

 shoulder, struck a branch, the rifle went off, the toe of the 

 butt catching the point of my shoulder, upsetting me, and 

 I fell with my right arm and the rifle under me. As the 

 smoke cleared I found the elephant standing alongside me, 

 with one foot actually swaying over my body, and I with 

 my empty rifle and one arm under my right side, powerless 

 to move. I simply lay there and gazed up at him, think- 

 ing I was caught at last. After what seemed minutes he 

 turned and went off slowly, but grumbling horribly. I 

 scrambled up and saw a cooly flattened against a small tree 

 trunk, but it turned out to be the cooly with the refresh- 

 ments. The cooly with the second gun was, however, 

 close alongside, but it was too late to get a shot. Just then 

 the tracker crept on to the scene with his skin all torn and 

 bleeding, and his hair and face full of thorn and leaves. 

 He was surprised to find me alive, and absolutely refused 

 to follow on the track of the elephant, which we could still 

 hear, but suggested that we should make for the path to 

 the clearing, which was quite close, and run along it and 

 try and head off the elephant, who was making in the 

 direction of the burnt clearing. The path we struck ran 

 almost parallel with the line the elephant was taking, and 

 we broke out on to a bit of swampy open land together, he 

 slightly ahead of us but down wind. He still seemed to 

 have lots of fight in him. As soon as he got our wind he 

 pulled up and came slowly for us, but I had a clear, open 

 shot, and waited till he was close up and dropped him dead. 



129 i 



