6o ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
wife. My mother and the boys will be sold and I 
shall be married to a shenzi. Bwana, we are all 
free-born, and I would rather you should shoot me 
than let these men take me away.’ 
I bade the poor girl have no fear on this score 
and assured her and her fellow-captives that I would 
see that they got safely back to their homes. Then, 
turning to Mataka’s men, I informed them of my 
decision, and warned them that if ever I caught them 
at this nefarious game again I would shoot them 
down like dogs. Lest they should think I had 
spoken idle words, I decided to give them an 
exhibition of the power and effectiveness of a 
modern rifle, so, choosing a particular tree as 
target, I fired a few rounds at it, the solid 
*3°3 bullets piercing the trunk through and through. 
Then, as a demonstration of the gun’s rapidity of 
fire, I filled the magazine with ten cartridges and 
discharged them in quick succession, and from 
the subsequent expressions on their shining, 
swarthy faces, I could see that the performance 
had made a decided impression. 
Next morning, the mother of Swasuri (for that 
was the girl’s name) was considerably worse, and 
quite unable to proceed to her home, so I requested 
her to stay in my camp until she was well enough 
to make the journey. This journey she was 
destined never to accomplish, for, in spite of every 
