HUNTING THE ELEPHANT 163 



That Mr. Lloyd has been favoured with more than 

 one man's share of hairbreadth escapes while hunting 

 elephants is evident. The following quotation from 

 a second volume of travel T in Africa does not by any 

 means exhaust the number of thrilling stories he has 

 to tell : " Hearing there were elephants in the neigh- 

 bourhood, I cleaned my rifle, which was of small 

 (303) calibre, selected three of my most plucky boys, 

 asked the chief of the village to give me a man to 

 guide us to the herd, and when he was forthcoming 

 we started off. It was not long before we were push- 

 ing our way through long tiger-grass, towering away 

 about six feet above us. In front, .advancing noise- 

 lessly, was our native guide, twisting himself in and 

 out amongst the tufts of thick jungle, sometimes creep- 

 ing on hands and knees, and ever keeping eyes and 

 ears well on the alert, for not only elephants but lions 

 also were about. Then I followed, much more 

 clumsily I must admit, but as quietly as possible. 

 Occasionally I would fall full length, having tripped 

 over some hidden stump or caught my foot in a 

 creeper, and each time I did so the guide would stop 

 and gravely shake his head, meaning, I suppose, to 

 show how much he pitied me for my clumsiness. A 

 quarter of an hour's progress of this kind brought 

 us to an open patch of land, covered with much shorter 

 grass. Here the guide stopped and told us to wait 

 while he went forward a little to scout. Wie waited 

 in breathless excitement, for somehow we felt sure we 

 were very near to the herd. After a time the guide 

 returned with a beaming countenance, which denoted 

 that he had seen the elephants. He beckoned to me, 

 1 See Bibliography, 3. 



