On One
Occasion, However, I Passed The News On To My
Friend, Dr. Winston Waters, With The Result That
He Had A Most Exciting Adventure With A Big Bull
Elephant.
He set out in quest of the depredator,
and, guided by a few of the Wa Kikuyu, soon
came
Upon him hidden among some shady trees.
Waters was a great believer in a close shot, so
he stalked up to within a few yards of the animal
and then fired his .577, aiming for the heart. The
elephant responded by a prompt and determined
charge, and although Waters quickly let him have
the left barrel as well, it proved of no effect; and
on he came, screaming and trumpeting with rage.
There was nothing for it, therefore, but to fly for
dear life; so down a path raced Waters for all he
was worth, the elephant giving vigorous chase and
gaining rapidly. In a few seconds matters began
to look very serious for the sportsman, for the huge
monster was almost on him; but at the critical
moment he stepped on to the false cover of a
carefully-concealed game pit and disappeared
from view as if by magic. This sudden descent
of his enemy apparently into the bowels of the
earth so startled the elephant that he stopped
short in his career and made off into the jungle.
As for Waters, he was luckily none the worse for
his fall, as the pit was neither staked at the
bottom nor very deep; he soon scrambled out,
and, following up the wounded elephant, succeeded
in finishing him off without further trouble.
Towards the end of 1899 I left for England.
A few days before I started all my Wa Kikuyu
"children", as they called themselves, came in
a body and begged to be taken with me. I
pictured to them the cold, wet climate of
England and its great distance from their native
land; but they assured me that these were
nothing to them, as they only wished to continue
my "children" and to go wherever I went. I
could hardly imagine myself arriving in London
with a body-guard of four hundred more or less
naked savages, but it was only with difficulty that
I persuaded them that they had better remain in
their own country. The ever-faithful Mahina,
my "boy" Roshan Khan, my honest chaukidar,
Meeanh, and a few other coolies who had been a
long time with me, accompanied me to the coast,
where they bade me a sorrowful farewell and left
for India the day before I sailed on my homeward
journey.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE FINDING OF THE NEW ELAND
During the early part of last year (1906) I
revisited the scene of my former labours and
adventures on a shooting trip. Unfortunately the
train by which I travelled up from Mombasa
reached Tsavo at midnight, but all the same I
got out and prowled about as long as time would
permit, half wondering every moment if the
ghosts of the two man-eaters would spring at
me out of the bushes.
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