VIII 
EXCURSIONS FROM EL BOGOI 
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 1 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 my 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. 
