IV 
KOM-KOM 
49 
At once, I groped about me for my rifle and dis¬ 
covered, to my intense joy, that it lay undamaged 
by my side. Eagerly grabbing it, I cautiously 
opened the bolt to eject the shell and jerked the 
last cartridge into the breech. At this juncture, 
Simba and Ntawasie, who had dodged into the bush 
seeing the elephant almost upon me, and imagining 
that I must be in a sore predicament, pluckily 
began yelling in the hope of distracting the animal’s 
attention. The ruse was successful: like a flash, 
Kom-Kom turned and crashed in their direction. 
Seizing my opportunity, I quickly raised my rifle 
and sent the remaining bullet into the vicinity of his 
lungs, and though not fatal, the shot had a salutary 
effect, for Kom-Kom immediately gave up the 
pursuit of my men and tore madly through the bush 
for some seventy yards to the left. My next move 
was to extricate myself and regain my feet. Ugh ! 
how sore I felt! When I had fallen, a thick branch 
had struck me on the right side of my head, 
severely cutting me under the eye and scrubbing 
the skin off one side of my nose, while my left 
elbow, laid bare to the bone, was bleeding profusely 
and giving me considerable pain. These little mis¬ 
haps, however, are incidental to the game of hunting 
and detract little from its joys, so rejoining my two 
men and exchanging my light for my heavy rifle, I 
at once decided to resume the pursuit of Kom- 
E 
