88 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
rived, he had wrecked the stall, and the keepers 
were afraid that he might get loose. Another stall 
had been arranged, but they could figure out no 
way of changing him to it. The men were thor- 
oughly frightened and absolutely refused to risk 
hobbling him. The director of the Gardens offered 
me £100 if I would do it, and, since I had Ali and 
several of my own men with me, I agreed to try. 
With elephant hooks strapped to our wrists, we 
entered the stall. The elephant stood looking at us, 
apparently wondering which one he should knock 
down first. I told Ali to get behind him while I 
approached from the front. 
I went up to him sideways, speaking to him and 
offering him food. He waited quietly until I was 
near enough; then, before I could duck, he hit me 
with his trunk. I felt myself spinning so rapidly 
that the elephant, my men and the stall were all a 
blur; and I came up against the wall with a thud. 
Fortunately, there was a gutter running along the 
wall, and I dropped into it just as the elephant 
lunged forward at me. His big head hit the wall 
and the floor but couldn’t get at me. He would 
not risk his trunk, because he realized that I would 
jab him with the hook. 
Ali and the other men were at his tail, jabbing 
him and pulling. When he turned for them, I 
jumped up and began running my hook into his side. 
It became a game of jabbing and dodging and wor- 
rying him to first one side and then the other. I 
