I was about three hundred yards from the boma when my attention was drawn to a movement in the trees about a quarter of a mile away.

I looked and saw what I first thought was a herd of zebras coming toward me.

They looked dark against the faint light of early dawn and seemed surprisingly big.
Then I realized! They were elephants! I had only my little gun and my big double-barreled cordite was at the boma, three hundred yards away.
Breathlessly I ran for it, fearing that the elephants might cut me off before I could reach it.

There seemed to be from seven to ten of them, but they soon disappeared in the trees, going at a fast swinging walk.
Hassan, my first gunbearer, stopped to slip a couple of solid shells in the gun while I ran to the top of a hill in the hope of catching sight of the herd.

But they had disappeared entirely.