206 
IN AFRICA 
enough.” Mr. Stephenson followed her for some 
distance and decided that she was going to recover, 
and so came back. In the meantime my elephant, 
with the two smaller ones, was moving off to the 
left, and with my small rifle I fired at its backbone, 
the only vulnerable spot visible. A spurt of dust 
rose, but the elephant did not stop. So, accom¬ 
panied by Hassan and Sulimani, my two gunbear- 
ers, I started after the wounded elephant and the 
two younger ones. The big one was moving slowly, 
as though badly wounded. The wind was bad, so 
we circled around to head them off and in doing so 
completely lost them. Presently we struck their 
trail and followed them by the blood-stains on the 
grass. 
After some minutes we saw them moving along 
in the tall grass near the Nzoia River. Again we 
swiftly circled to head them off before they could 
cross the river, but when we reached a point where 
they had last been seen they had disappeared in the 
dense tangle of trees and high reeds that grew at 
the river’s edge. We thought they would cross the 
river, so we rushed after them. Suddenly Hassan 
yelled “Here they come!” and, ahead of us, came 
the large elephant, its head rising from above the 
sea of grass like the bow of a battleship bearing 
rapidly down upon us. The two smaller ones were 
almost invisible, only the back of one appearing 
above the reeds. We were out in the open and the 
situation looked decidedly dangerous. I hastily 
drew a bead on the big one’s forehead, fired, but it 
