CHAPTER XII 
“ ’TWAS THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS.” PHOTOGRAPH¬ 
ING A CHARGING ELEPHANT. CORNERING A 
WOUNDED ELEPHANT IN A RIYER JUNGLE 
GROWTH. A THRILLING CHARGE. 
i-iassan’s courage 
On the night of December the twenty-third I sat 
out in a boma watching for lions. None came and at 
the first crack of dawn my two gunbearers and I 
crawled out of the tangled mass of thorn branches, 
and prepared to return to camp two miles away. 
We were expecting my sais to arrive with my horse 
soon after daybreak, and while waiting for him to 
come, and for my gunbearers to get the blankets 
tied up, I went across to a neighboring swamp in the 
hope of getting a bushbuck. I was about three hun¬ 
dred yards from the boma when my attention was 
drawn to a movement in the trees about a quarter of 
a mile away. I looked and saw what I first thought 
was a herd of zebras coming toward me. They 
looked dark against the faint light of early dawn 
and seemed surprisingly big. Then I realized! 
They were elephants! I had only my little gun and 
my big double-barreled cordite was at the boma, 
three hundred yards away. Breathlessly I ran for it, 
fearing that the elephants might cut me off before 
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