282 SAFARI 



Africa; but both of which belong in a tale of the ups 

 and downs of our strange and varied life. 



The first one was an accident to myself. Every 

 day we had been hearing elephants trumpeting across 

 the lake, breaking down trees as they fed, and yet had 

 not been able to get a good flashlight picture of the 

 herd. So I decided to set up my apparatus across 

 the lake. Usually I had two flash cartridges but 

 this time, wanting a big picture, I used sixteen in 

 nests of two each. 



Now we were always very careful about stepping 

 on the near side of the wire. The scent of animals 

 is so powerful as to seem uncanny; for hours after 

 you have set foot near a spot they will catch your 

 scent. This is particularly true of the forest where 

 there is no sun to destroy the smell. But careful as 

 we were, this time some one blimdered. I must 

 have touched the spring, for there was a great roar 

 and a light like that which greeted Saul on the road 

 to Damascus, then all was blackness. And every- 

 where I went, blinded and groping, there was a singe 

 of burning flesh in the air — my own. And, remem- 

 bering the boy who had just died, I was more fright- 

 ened than ever I had been when facing wild animals. 

 After a while the boys who had been scared away by 

 the great boom returned to my side, helped me to my 

 feet and half led, half carried me, back to camp. 

 Osa was out on the trail and there was not a living 



