WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



cleverly. I was glad when he stopped his assault and 

 fled in the direction the herd had taken; this relieved 

 me of the necessity of shooting him. As we were tired 

 to death, w^e did not go back to our men, but stayed 

 where we were, lit a fire, and prepared to spend the night 

 on the open steppe. But tormenting thirst prevented 

 us from falling asleep. We went back to the nearest 

 dead elephant, opened his stomach, and drank of the 

 nauseating fluid we found. Then we lay down once 

 more to sleep. About nine o'clock one of my blacks 

 alarmed us with the subdued cry: "Tembo Bwana! 

 Tembo!" 



And, indeed, not farther than five hundred feet from 

 us the remaining twenty-one elephants passed by in the 

 direction of the mountains from which they had come, 

 resembling, in the moonhght, a herd of phantoms. 



The night passed without further excitement. I had 

 taken my turn as guard in the early hours. Towards 

 morning I was startled from deep slumber by a 

 strange noise. Looking about me, I saw that the fire 

 had burned low, and that all my men, the guard in- 

 cluded, were sound asleep. It was the snoring of the 

 guard which had awakened me. 



We started early in the morning on our homeward 

 march, and reached our camp after a tramp of ten hours 

 over the dry steppe in the glowing heat of the tropical 

 sun. I doubt whether we ever would have survived 

 that day had we not found some water in the bed of 



io8 



