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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 217 of 247
Words from 59764 to 60039
of 68125
