ly would have accomplished, but that Jerry was remarkably agile
and very small; the ground being soft and muddy was also in his favour.
Once she set her foot on his chest, and he felt the bones bending. Of
course had the creature's full weight pressed it, Jerry would have been
cracked like a walnut, but the monster's foot was rounded and wet, and,
the poor man making a desperate wrench, it slipped into the mud; then
she trod on his arm, and squeezed it into the ground without snapping
the bone. Thus stamping and wriggling for a few seconds, the two fought
on for vengeance and for life, while George Rennie, Hans, and the two
Mullers ran to the rescue and fired a volley. This caused the animal to
wince and look up. Jerry, taking advantage of the pause, jumped up and
dived out from below her between her hind-legs--alighting on his head
and turning a complete somersault. He regained his feet just as she
turned round again to seize him. At that critical moment Lucas Van Dyk
put a ball in her head, and Considine sent another into the root of her
trunk, which induced her to turn and join her screaming offspring in the
bushes.

The hunters pursued, while Jerry, covered with mud and bruises, and
scarcely able to run, made off in the opposite direction. He had
scarcely reached the shelter of some broken ground, when the enormous
male elephant which had been previously encountered, came running past,
either to the rescue of its mate, or flying in alarm at the firing. It
caught one of the Hottentots who had loitered in rear of the attacking
party, carried him some distance in its trunk, and then, throwing him on
the ground, brought its four feet together and trod and stamped on him
for a considerable time. The unfortunate man was killed instantly. It
left the corpse for a little, and then returned to it, as if to make
quite sure of its deadly work, and, kneeling down, crushed and kneaded
the body with its fore-legs. Then seizing it again with its trunk, it
carried it off and threw it into the jungle.

This delay on the elephant's part gave the hunters time to return from
the destruction of the female, and with several successful shots to kill
the male.

"'Tis a heavy price to pay for our sport," said Considine sadly, as he
stood with his companions gazing on the body of the Hottentot, which was
trodden into a shapeless mass.

"Hunters don't go out for _mere sport_," said Lucas Van Dyk, "they do it
in the way of busin