206 IN AFRICA 



enough." Mr. Stephenson followed her for some 

 distance and decided that she was going to recover, 

 and so came back. In the meantime my elephant, 

 with the two smaller ones, was moving off to the 

 left, and with my small rifle I fired at its backbone, 

 the only vulnerable spot visible. A spurt of dust 

 rose, but the elephant did not stop. So, accom- 

 panied by Hassan and Sulimani, my two gunbear- 

 ers, I started after the w r ounded elephant and the 

 two younger ones. The big one w r as moving slowly, 

 as though badly wounded. The wind was bad, so 

 we circled around to head them off and in doing so 

 completely lost them. Presently we struck their 

 trail and followed them by the blood-stains on the 

 grass. 



After some minutes we saw them moving along 

 in the tall grass near the Nzoia River. Again we 

 swiftly circled to head them off before they could 

 cross the river, but when we reached a point where 

 they had last been seen they had disappeared in the 

 dense tangle of trees and high reeds that grew at 

 the river's edge. We thought they would cross the 

 river, so we rushed after them. Suddenly Hassan 

 yelled "Here they come!" and, ahead of us, came 

 the large elephant, its head rising from above the 

 sea of grass like the bow of a battleship bearing 

 rapidly down upon us. The two smaller ones were 

 almost invisible, only the back of one appearing 

 above the reeds. We were out in the open and the 

 situation looked decidedly dangerous. I hastily 

 drew a bead on the big one's forehead, fired, but it 



