de, so that he
completely hid me from the others.

"I thought that Kisesa, though he had not told me to shoot elephants,
would not mind my bringing him two great ivory tusks, which would be
worth at Zanzibar 500 dollars, since he had come to Ukonongo to get
ivory, and that if he gave me four yards of cloth for a Kudu antelope,
that he would give many more yards of cloth for 500 dollars worth of
ivory.

"This thought gave me confidence to proceed, and imperceptibly I was
drawing nearer and nearer to the monster near the baobab. After a few
minutes, which seemed to me to be hours, I was lifting myself to my
feet, girding my loins tighter, and preparing myself for a run for life.
But just at the moment I ought to have fired, a mischievous idea came
into my head; the hind quarters of the brute were so close to me that I
thought it would be great fun, and a good story to tell afterwards if I
tickled the brute's tail. Gutting a long straw, I extended the point
towards the tail, and then traced a line across the leg to the belly.
It was delicious to watch the flurry of the short tail and the circles
it described, and to watch the brute half leaning against the tree, and
rubbing it with his ponderous form. When this play had lasted a short
time, I brought down my gun, and pointing it about three inches or so
behind the left fore leg, on a level with the position of the beast, I
fired. The elephant sprang forward, and by doing so disclosed to the
astonished eyes of the others my retreating form, which, I assure you,
was bounding over the low bushes and grass tops as if I were an
antelope.

"The elephants got over their surprise in a second, then a wild snort of
rage greeted my ears, and I knew by the crash, of bushes and splash of
water that they were after me. Never an antelope bounded over the
plains of Ukonongo, when chased by a lion, as I bounded then; never a
timid quagga's fleet feet carried him away from the hunters as my feet
carried me over that ground. But it seemed to me for a time as if it
were of no use--the awful crashing got nearer and nearer, and as I
turned my head to measure the distance the foremost was from me, I saw
the lord of the herd was but thirty paces from me. He seemed to tower
up to three times his usual height, and to swell out into proportions
three times as vast as his natural size; his great ears stood straight
out as flat as a board, as if they were wings, and his eyes were like
coals