184 
TETEL DISTRESSED . 
[chap. vii. 
trunk stretched out to catch him. Screaming like the 
whistle of an engine, he fortunately so frightened the 
horse that he went his best, although badly, and I 
turned him suddenly down the hill and doubled back 
like a hare. The elephant turned up the hill, and en¬ 
tering the jungle he relinquished the chase, when 
another hundred yards’ run would have bagged me. 
In a life’s experience in elephant-hunting, I never 
was hunted for such a distance. Great as were Tetel’s 
good qualities for pluck and steadiness, he had ex¬ 
hibited such distress and want of speed, that I was 
sure he failed through some sudden malady. I imme¬ 
diately dismounted, and the horse laid down, as I 
thought, to die. 
Whistling loudly, I at length recalled Hamed, who 
had still continued his rapid flight without once looking 
back, although the elephant was out of sight. Yaseen 
was, of course, nowhere; but after a quarter of an 
hour’s shouting and whistling, he reappeared, and I 
mounted Filfil, ordering Tetel to be led home. 
The sun had just sunk, and the two Latookas who 
now joined me refused to go farther on the tracks, 
saying, that the elephant must die during the night, 
and that they would find him in the morning. We 
were at least ten miles from camp; I therefore fired 
a shot to collect my scattered men, and in about half 
an hour we all joined together, except the camels and 
their drivers, that we had left miles behind. 
No one had tasted food since the previous day, nor 
had I drunk water, although the sun had been burning 
hot; I now obtained some muddy rain water from a 
puddle, and we went towards home, where we arrived 
at half-past eight, every one tired with the day’s work. 
The camels came into camp about an hour later. 
My men were all now wonderfully brave; each had 
some story of a narrow escape, and several declared 
that the elephants had run over them, but fortunately 
without putting their feet upon them. 
The news spread through the town that the elephant 
