nd
bark, and smoking droppings, we knew that we could not be far from them.

Presently we caught sight of the herd, which numbered, as Ventvoegel had
said, between twenty and thirty, standing in a hollow, having finished
their morning meal, and flapping their great ears. It was a splendid
sight, for they were only about two hundred yards from us. Taking a
handful of dry grass, I threw it into the air to see how the wind was;
for if once they winded us I knew they would be off before we could get
a shot. Finding that, if anything, it blew from the elephants to us, we
crept on stealthily, and thanks to the cover managed to get within
forty yards or so of the great brutes. Just in front of us, and
broadside on, stood three splendid bulls, one of them with enormous
tusks. I whispered to the others that I would take the middle one; Sir
Henry covering the elephant to the left, and Good the bull with the big
tusks.

"Now," I whispered.

Boom! boom! boom! went the three heavy rifles, and down came Sir
Henry's elephant dead as a hammer, shot right through the heart. Mine
fell on to its knees and I thought that he was going to die, but in
another moment he was up and off, tearing along straight past me. As he
went I gave him the second barrel in the ribs, and this brought him
down in good earnest. Hastily slipping in two fresh cartridges I ran
close up to him, and a ball through the brain put an end to the poor
brute's struggles. Then I turned to see how Good had fared with the big
bull, which I had heard screaming with rage and pain as I gave mine its
quietus. On reaching the captain I found him in a great state of
excitement. It appeared that on receiving the bullet the bull had
turned and come straight for his assailant, who had barely time to get
out of his way, and then charged on blindly past him, in the direction
of our encampment. Meanwhile the herd had crashed off in wild alarm in
the other direction.

For awhile we debated whether to go after the wounded bull or to follow
the herd, and finally deciding for the latter alternative, departed,
thinking that we had seen the last of those big tusks. I have often
wished since that we had. It was easy work to follow the elephants, for
they had left a trail like a carriage road behind them, crushing down
the thick bush in their furious flight as though it were tambouki grass.

But to come up with them was another matter, and we had struggled on
under the broiling sun for o