d as if scenting
the air. After two or three minutes hesitation they continued to
descend the hill.

"Are they afraid of man?" Jethro asked one of the escort.

"Sometimes they are seized with a panic and fly at the approach of a
human being; but if attacked they will charge any number without
hesitation."

"Do you ever hunt them?"

"Sometimes; but always with a great number of men. It is useless to
shoot arrows at them; the only way is to crawl out behind and cut the
back sinews of their legs. It needs a strong man and a sharp sword,
but it can be done. Then they are helpless, but even then it is a long
work to dispatch them. Generally we drive them from our villages by
lighting great fires and making noises. Solitary elephants are more
dangerous than a herd. I have known one of them kill a dozen men,
seizing some in his trunk and throwing them in the air as high as the
top of a lofty tree, dashing others to the ground and kneeling upon
them until every bone is crushed to pieces."

The elephants had now reached the bottom of the valley, and the chief
of the escort held up his hand for perfect silence. All were prepared
to fight if the elephants pursued them into the bushes, for further
retreat was impossible. Amuba and Chebron had fitted their arrows into
the bowstrings and loosened their swords in the scabbards. The four
natives had drawn the short heavy swords they carried, while Jethro
grasped the ax that was his favorite weapon. "Remember," he had
whispered to the boys, "the back sinews of the legs are the only
useful point to aim at; if they advance, separate, and if they make
toward the girls try to get behind them and hamstring them."

There was a long pause of expectation. The elephants could be heard
making a low snorting noise with their trunks; and Jethro at last
raised himself sufficiently to look through the bushes at what was
going on. The elephants were examining the bundles that had been
thrown down.

"I believe that they are eating up our food," he whispered as he sat
down again.

Half an hour elapsed, and then there was a sound of breaking the
bushes. Jethro again looked out.

"Thank the gods!" he exclaimed, "they are going off again."

Trampling down the mimosa thicket as if it had been grass, the
elephants ascended the opposite hill and at last re-entered the wood
from which they had first emerged. The fugitives waited for a quarter
of an hour and then made their way out again from the