but the fact that its breasts showed no signs of milk
fullness led me to hope that it was a young bull, and I determined to
act on that supposition. I at once advanced with my big gun in
readiness. The two largest elephants at the same moment whirled around
and started swiftly toward us. I rested my gun against the side of a
small tree and after their onward rush had brought them within fifty
yards I fired as Ake suggested, "just between the eye and ear." The
animal swerved but did not fall. Akeley and Stephenson fired at the big
cow and under the shock of their heavy shells she dropped to her knees,
then sprang up and came on again. Once more they shot and she again went
down on her knees, but got up, shaking her head and turned a little to
one side. Stephenson started to shoot her again, but Ake shouted, "Don't
shoot her again. She's got enough." Mr. Stephenson followed her for some
distance and decided that she was going to recover, and so came back. In
the meantime my elephant, with the two smaller ones, was moving off to
the left, and with my small rifle I fired at its backbone, the only
vulnerable spot visible. A spurt of dust rose, but the elephant did not
stop. So, accompanied by Hassan and Sulimani, my two gunbearers, I
started after the wounded elephant and the two younger ones. The big one
was moving slowly, as though badly wounded. The wind was bad, so we
circled around to head them off and in doing so completely lost them.
Presently we struck their trail and followed them by the blood-stains on
the grass.

After some minutes we saw them moving along in the tall grass near the
Nzoia River. Again we swiftly circled to head them off before they could
cross the river, but when we reached a point where they had last been
seen they had disappeared in the dense tangle of trees and high reeds
that grew at the river's edge. We thought they would cross the river, so
we rushed after them. Suddenly Hassan yelled "Here they come!" and,
ahead of us, came the large elephant, its head rising from above the sea
of grass like the bow of a battleship bearing rapidly down upon us. The
two smaller ones were almost invisible, only the back of one appearing
above the reeds. We were out in the open and the situation looked
decidedly dangerous. I hastily drew a bead on the big one's forehead,
fired, but it didn't stop. There was barely time for us to get out of
the way. I ran sideways toward a little mound that furnished some
prot