Adventure Magazine Cover — page 151: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

With an Elephant Hunter in Africa into the mud and water, and here, up to our waists in ooze, watched the mob go career- ing by. Not until the last extended tail had disappeared did we drag ourselves out and begin our weary tramp back to camp. The cook had an excellent supper almost ready, and, after we had done it ample jus- tice, the gentleman from the Netherlands, smoking his pipe in front of the tent in the cool and quiet evening of the highland wil- derness, expressed an opinion to the effect that an elephant hunt was a great experience but that one was sufficient for a lifetime. Be back to the post of the German Gov- ernment at Ikona, I took another peep at civilization in the towns along the railroad and then looked about for a real huntsman to accompany me on an expedi- tion for ivory for the market. I found my man. He was a big English- man, an ex-member of the King’s Guards and a soldier of fortune who was ready for adventure of any kind. We started from old Kisumu, a trading-post on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria Nyanza. Our vessel was an Arab dhow and our fellow passen- gers a choice collection of Arabs, East Indi- ans and Swahalis, all bound across the lake to hunt and trade. Buffeted by adverse winds, we were ten days on the big inland sea of Africa and the supply of provisions began to run low. For the purpose of stocking up again the old Arab captain cast anchor off the island of Lusinga and signaled to the natives to send out canoes, but for some reason the latter paid no attention. Driven by necessity, a number of Swahalis plunged off the dkow to swim ashore, all of them reaching it in safety except the last, who, among the reeds, ut- tered a frenzied shriek. What this meant we knew only too well—a crocodile had seized the swimmer. With a long knife in his mouth, an Arab jumped overboard to the rescue—a brave deed, but unfortunately the rescuer was too late. With our equipment wet from incessant rains we at last landed at Shirati, hired some sixty native carriers and pushed on without delay. We passed through Ikona, where I had met the huntsman from the Nether- lands, and camped some miles farther on, near a Wasire village, which was surrounded Il AFTER conveying my friend safely 715 by a high cactus hedge to keep off lions, especially plentiful in this locality. Only for a day we tarried here, pushing on in the gray light of dawn. Lions prowled around us, doing good service in keeping our carriers close up with us, and we shot a lion and a lioness, obtaining two fine skins. In addition, my partner dropped a rhino which had caused the porters to cast down their loads and speed for the nearest mimosa trees. In four days we came upon the fresh spoor of elephants—the ground almost bare of grass, and the trees stripped clean of bark. We camped near a pool of water to which the elephants evidently came to drink, and the same morning found the herd. It was divided into three mobs, the biggest num- bering about one hundred animals, and the other two about fifty each. The large mob was made up chiefly of cows and calves, with only eight or ten buils among them, but these were all good tuskers. The second mob were mostly young bulls with tusks weighing under fifty pounds. The third detachment was composed of full-grown bulls. It was the one we wanted. The animals were facing us, flapping their ears busily to keep off the flies, and incidentally giving us a fine view of their ivory. My partner and I each selected a fine bull, took aim, and mine dropped with a shot through the head. My partner, how- ever, was not so lucky. He hit only the trunk, the elephant gave vent to a squeal of pain and rage; the others threw up their trunks with the same soldier-like precision that I had noticed when hunting with the Dutchman, and took flight. We pursued them, firing as we went, and passing a young bull which was quite dead, we came up with two big ones groggy from wounds, dropped them and pushed on. Long shadows were beginning to reach eastward from the hills when we remember- ed that we had gone since early morning without food or water. Estimating the camp to be about fifteen miles behind us, I proposed that we try to refresh ourselves vith sleep and then look for a spring—a quest of more importance than any hunt for ivory, since water was not easy to find on these semi-arid highlands, and both of us had become extremely thirsty. But my partner, being keen to get back to camp, would not listen to my suggestion. After about nine miles of one of the hard- CORMICGLOOCKS.€O im