I70 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



first I supposed it to be the one we were following, but on killing 

 it — dropping it at once with two shots in quick succession — I 

 found it was another, as it had no other wound. The two .303 

 bullets were found under the skin on the far side, having passed 

 through diagonally, and either would have been fatal. 



As the giraffe was very fat, my men were keen to cut it all 

 up, and I got tired of waiting for them and had hard work to 

 get them away at all. By the time we did start, carrying as 

 much meat as we could and leaving more to be fetched the 

 next day, it was late in the afternoon, and we had far to go ; 

 so that, when we reached a hill near which Lorgete was living 

 at the time, it was already dusk. He wanted to turn off home 

 here, but I objected, feeling sure we should get wrong in the 

 dark, as it was all dense bush, and we did not know that part of 

 the country well, though we could keep our course well enough by 

 daylight. However, Squareface was so confident of finding the 

 way all right, that I foolishly yielded and allowed the Ndorobo 

 to go his way. The result was, that, as soon as it got dark, 

 we very quickly lost ourselves. Now there was a very deep, 

 narrow gully, with precipitous sides, which we had to cross, and 

 it wound about and had many ramifications, the bush being 

 particularly dense all about it. We failed to hit the right 

 crossing-place in the dark, and then, having, with great labour, 

 struggled through, found ourselves, apparently, hopelessly en- 

 tangled in a maze of deep dongas ; whichever way we tried, we 

 came upon an impassable chasm, looking most appalling in the 

 dark. It ended in our having to cross and recross, with much 

 struggling and scrambling, several such ; and, after tearing our 

 clothes and selves to pieces, and messing about half the night 

 saturated with the cold dew, we at last got to camp, draggled, 

 tired and worried, about midnight. After cleaning my rifles 

 as usual, and having a bath, I had a little dinner about i A.M. 



I found that one of my men had come over from El Bogoi 

 bringing with him one of Lesiat's Ndorobos. This man told me 

 that Lesiat had not heard of my arrival ; he also said that 



