FOOLHARDY CONDUCT. 



elephants, and " Sold, old fellow," was facetiously remarked 

 by the other. I was very angry at being thus disturbed* 

 and still more so when I found out the real state of the 

 case. It seemed that, after we left the dinner-table, the 

 first glass of brandy and water (which generally supplies 

 the place of claret or port in Africa) had caused these 

 two gentlemen to decide that our night-ride was ridi- 

 culous ; the second had proved us two absolute donkeys ; 

 the third that we ought to be sold. I don't know how 

 many, more or less, it had taken to decide the plan, 

 which was, that they would mount their horses and ride 

 out to where we were waiting, and discover our hiding- 

 place without our knowing of their approach, and then 

 commence imitating noises that were to make us think 

 they were elephants ! Upon my assuring these gentle- 

 men that a large troop of elephants was really in the 

 bush close by, they either could not or would not believe 

 it, and easily satisfied themselves that their opinion was 

 right ; as, after listening a minute or so, and riding round 

 a little way, they declared they only heard a crack of 

 some sort in the bush, and had not seen a single elephant, 

 and that the noises we said we had heard must have been 

 caused by our imagination. 



Our opinion had been formed from half an hour's care- 

 ful listening, theirs from two minutes noisy looking 

 round. Is there any self-sufficiency in this sort of con- 

 clusions I wonder? I may here relate a ridiculous 

 mistake that I made, and a narrow escape of Kaffir 

 slaughter, both caused by my eagerness for a fine speci- 

 men of the black bush-buck. 



