The Horse Recovered Quicker Than I,
And, Galloping Off, He Vanished In The High Grass, Leaving Me
Rather Confused From The Fall Upon My Head.
The herd, instead of
crushing me as they ought to have done, took fright, and bolted
off at their best pace.
My eyes were dancing with the fall; the
mounted gun-bearers were nowhere, as Gazelle would not face the
elephants, and Tetel was far behind. My English saddle had
vanished with Aggahr, and, as the stirrups of the Arab saddles
were simple rings for the accommodation of the big toe, they were
unserviceable. Had the aggageers been with me, I should have had
great sport with this herd; but, with the exception of Taher
Noor, the men were bad horsemen, and even he was afraid of the
ground, which was frightfully dangerous.
We discovered that the bullet had passed through the great artery
of the heart, which had caused the instantaneous death of the
elephant I had shot.
We were now at least seventeen miles from camp, and I feared that
Aggahr would be lost, and would most likely be devoured by a lion
during the night: thus I should lose not only my good old hunter,
but my English saddle. I passed several hours in searching for
him in all directions, and, in order to prevent him from straying
to the south, we fired the grass in all directions; we thus had
a line of fire between the camp and ourselves; this burnt slowly,
as the north wind had carried the blaze rapidly in the other
direction.
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