had before done. Still, I only hoped that the
elephants would not charge us. We got our rifles ready for a shot.
Every instant we expected to be upon them, when suddenly the warning
"prur-r-r-r-r-t" was heard, followed by a loud crashing of boughs and
brushwood. Were they about to charge us? No; off they were again. The
sun was getting up. There was but little air that we could feel.
Still, there was enough to carry our scent down to the elephant. It was
intensely hot. We had had very little breakfast, and I began to think
that elephant-shooting was rather a serious sort of sport after all.
Nowell was too practised and keen a sportsman to think anything of the
sort, so hallooing me on again, we went ahead in the chase. We had much
the same sort of ground as before. I longed to be out of the jungle,
but the cunning elephants well knew that it was the safest sort of
country for them. They could always keep out of sight in it, and might
if they wished charge us at any moment. Had they been the ferocious
creatures some people describe them, this they would have done long
before. By degrees, the little wind there had been died away, and Dango
intimated that the elephants were circling round, probably making for
the lake we had before passed. This gave us fresh hope of overtaking
them. On we pushed, therefore. At length we came to a point where the
thick trail separated in two parts--one keeping to the left, the other
straight on. Nowell determined to follow the latter, though it was the
narrowest, made by only two or three elephants, or perhaps only one. We
knew now that we were less likely to be discovered by the elephants, as
they know of the approach of their enemies more by their scent than
their sight, which is supposed to be rather short. Working our way on,
we entered a low jungle which had been a short time before a chena
plantation. It was about five feet nigh, and it was of so dense a
character that no human being could have penetrated it unless in the
track of elephants. We had not entered it more than five minutes, when
just before us appeared the retreating form of a huge elephant. Nowell
started with delight and rushed on. I followed close at his heels, and
Dango and the natives followed me.

It seemed extraordinary foolhardiness that a few men should have
ventured to follow close on the heels of a huge monster armed with
powers so prodigious as the elephant. So it would have been had it