VIII EXCURSIONS FROM EL BO GO I 191 



passed. On the top of the rise we met a single prowling 

 elephant, quite in the open. It spread its ears and bore down 

 straight for us at a run, looking very weird in the moonlight. 

 No doubt it had got our wind and was really running away ; 

 but it came dead for where we were, and it was not a pleasant 

 idea to be run over by an elephant, even by mistake ; so, not 

 having a single cartridge left, as soon as my men started to 

 run for it, I felt constrained to follow suit, and, turning tail, 

 legged it with the best of them. These mishaps lost us 

 perhaps an hour and a half, and added much to my fatigue ; 

 indeed, they were the last straw to my endurance ; so that, 

 when at last we did reach camp at i A.M., I felt dead beat. 

 But it was cheering to find a good camp fire burning, and the 

 iron bucket of water for my bath still boiling away, while my 

 boy and the cook were anxiously looking out for us. I did 

 not, even then, shirk what I always considered m.y first duty 

 after a hunt, namely, to clean my rifles. Then I had a dip 

 in the river, a swill down with hot water, another dip, and then 

 some soup — I couldn't eat — and turned in about 3 A.M. But I 

 was past getting the sleep of the just. We had been hard at 

 it for over eighteen hours, with a lot of running thrown in. 



