MY BROTHER HUGH Born 5th October 1920 died 9th May 2006
pain is bad enough there……the very thought of what she had undergone made us both shudder!
On another occasion Mike & I went after elephant miles from anywhere and unfortunately I wounded one and this meant following it up and running it down. I knew it would take a long time and in fact it took two full days, but before setting off at dawn I warned Angela of the likely delay and for her morale I gave her my automatic. Now I am terrified of women with firearms and while the gun was a useful protection I thought that it would be wiser to leave it unloaded in case it should go off, and she do something amiss. As it was very hot at the time of the year, she was sleeping in the open under a grass roof in the middle of a bare open space. For many nights now we had heard the distant roar of lions, and there were many in this district but none had ever been known to attack humans, so it was unlikely that anything untoward would happen. Well I followed the elephant for over 40 miles and did not return until late the following afternoon.
On my return I was met at first with a stony sulky silence. So I enquired as to what was the trouble?
“Well while you chaps were disappearing into the blue yonder leaving me all by myself on my own there were lion last night that I had to cope with”
“Really but there are always the odd lion around and there is no need to panic”
“I know” she replied “ but this one came right up to me about 3 yards away and roared”
“Nonsense you are just exaggerating and making a mountain out of a molehill”
“All right then ” she said in an exasperated tone, “ If you don’t believe me come and look at the footprints”
And sure enough there was a mass of lion foot prints all round the hut. He or they must have stood around for quite a long time circling all around the simple lean-to. Obviously it was plain that this was quite a crisis.
“ So what did you do?” We both asked.
“Well he woke me up with his roaring and so I just lay still under my mosquito net clutching the automatic that I had placed under my pillow. I thought the best thing is to be absolutely quiet , but if he were to attack I would empty the gun into his body at really close range. Eventually he went away. A jolly good thing you gave me the gun”
“Lucky that he did not jump on you ” I replied “ The gun was not loaded “ and you would have been killed in a flash”!…………….Angela never spoke to us for tow or three days , she was so very furious!