To Lake Albert Edward 
189 
bullet through his forehead at a distance of one pace only, which, 
however, only caused the elephant to kneel down and try to bore 
Mambo with his tusks. Unsuccessful in this, he seized the youth 
by the straps of the cartridge pouch, and tossed him high into 
the air. 
I was unaware of these proceedings, as in my attempts to let 
the elephant pass I had slipped aside and fallen in the swampy 
ground again, where I stuck fast and could not move. I heard 
the cries and whimpers of my boy, and naturally struggled with 
all my might to free myself from the sludge and run to his aid. 
At the same moment the colossal form of the elephant burst 
crashing out of the matete^ making straight for me. Fortunately 
a small shrub concealed me from his view; but to my dismay, 
lying on the elephant’s tusks and held firmly by its rolled trunk, 
I observed a black body covered with torn-up reeds and grasses, 
and saw in a flash that Mambo was in a desperate fix. We were 
both in a most perilous position. If I succeeded in giving the 
elephant a mortal wound, and it fell to the ground, my boy’s 
body would invariably be crushed. I had seen this occur in the 
case of a female elephant and her young. Should the elephant 
not succumb, he would doubtless first kill the boy and then me, 
as in my helpless condition I was practically at his mercy. 
All these considerations flashed through my brain like a streak 
of lightning, but the elephant anticipated my conclusions, for 
when he was only five paces distant from me he seized Mambo 
firmly, and threw him some yards away into the tall grass, where 
the unfortunate wight lay groaning. Then, extending his ears 
wide, he rushed madly past me, a small bush alone dividing us, 
and disappeared in the matete. Mambo owed his life solely to 
the fact of the creature being badly injured, as, if the elephant 
had been in the possession of his full power, he would have not 
omitted the practice of his kind of trampling his enemy to death. 
These last efforts had no doubt overtaxed the severely 
wounded animal. A little later we heard it collapse and succumb 
with long-drawn, wailing sounds. 
Having at length succeeded in extricating myself from the 
