HUNTING IN AFRICA 125 



to go near. Now, I had just four cartridges left for that 

 rifle, and I hated to use them up, so instead of following 

 the man's example, who had at least had far more experi- 

 ence than I (and as once or twice already I had finished 

 animals that he had refused to go near, instead of using 

 another cartridge to make sure), I came behind the water- 

 buck, well clear of his horns, and straddling him as I had 

 to, drove the knife in. He was on his feet with a bound, 

 throwing me, I cannot say how many feet, over his head, 

 and with another bound was on top of me. My hunter 

 shot him in the neck promptly (a foolish place, by the 

 way, to shoot, for no man can be sure of breaking the bone, 

 and if you miss it you do little harm). He was too far 

 gone, most fortunately, to do me damage with his horns, 

 but his trampling hurt me dreadfully, he weighed quite six 

 hundred pounds. I limped to camp and lay there for several 

 days before addressing myself as best as I could, to the 

 eighty-mile walk to Nairobi. I got there at last, hobbling 

 along about eight or ten miles a day, my ankle and knee 

 much swollen. The ankle hurt most and mended soonest. 

 But that knee cost me many a weary month in bed and on 

 sofa afterward. 



After what I have said, I shall not, I hope, be accused 

 of exaggerating the danger likely to be met with by the 

 well-equipped sportsman in pursuit of game in East Africa. 

 But after making due allowance for hunters' stories, 

 specially inexperienced hunters' stories, a certain amount 

 of risk has to be run. Lion, rhino, elephant, and buffalo, 

 at times are very dangerous, and life is often lost. Ninety- 

 nine times out of a hundred, it is the wounded beast who 

 does the damage, and not only so, but it is in following 

 up wounded beasts that life or limb is lost. 



Every good man will take a risk sometimes, and will 

 be surely right in doing so. But there are risks to his 

 own life, and be it remembered to his men's lives, that 



