XXXV 
LOVE AND FAREWELL 
3°5 
we sallied out on a hunting expedition, and had 
been several days absent without discovering any 
fresh elephant spoor, when, one morning, we 
chanced upon the tracks of a very large bull 
elephant, who had been digging up the sand at a 
water-hole to the depth of four or five feet, a 
customary proceeding with elephants when in quest 
of water in the dry season. We decided, there and 
then, to track down this animal, if possible, and as 
one of my trackers, who was suffering from 
fever, had been left behind in camp, Seremani 
volunteered to perform his duties. So we set forth 
on the spoor and, after a spell of hard tramping, 
succeeded in coming up with our quarry about 
eleven o’clock. As the wind was variable, he got a 
whiff of our scent, and was just about to disappear 
into the adjoining bush when I sent a bullet into the 
region of his heart, unfortunately a little too far 
back to arrest his career. He incontinently 
vanished and travelled so strong, that it was well 
nigh four o’clock before we again caught sight of 
him. On this occasion, he was standing still, 
about a hundred yards away from us, in a thicket of 
bamboos, and cautiously though we had advanced, 
he saw us and promptly charged. As he came 
furiously on, I drove a couple of solid bullets out of 
my *500 cordite into his face, but they failed to turn 
him, and he continued his career till well within ten 
X 
