twig, there came a
slight snapping and swishing sound as the twig was torn from its parent
branch, and the next instant both stem and leaves vanished down a
cavernous throat. Then, as the ponderous trunk swung downward again,
and the beast uttered a grunt of enjoyment, I pressed the trigger of my
elephant gun, the barrel of which I had levelled over the bole of the
fallen tree a minute or two earlier: there was a flash, a blinding puff
of white smoke, and as the forest resounded with the crashing report, an
answering crash close at hand proclaimed the fall of the great beast.
Then, as the smoke gradually drifted away, we saw that the animal had
flung himself convulsively forward at the impact of the bullet, and now
lay stone-dead just on the other side of the prostrate tree behind which
we were crouching.

For several seconds after the echoes of the report died away there was
perfect silence in the forest: not a leaf seemed to stir or a bird to
twitter; even the very insects ceased their chirring, as though they
were wondering what had happened. Then, almost as though at a given
signal, the forest resounded with loud trumpetings of alarm and the
crashing of heavy bodies through the undergrowth, as the rest of the
unseen herd began to move restlessly and angrily hither and thither,
seeking the source of the sudden disturbance.

We remained where we were, crouching in our ambush, for a quarter of an
hour or more, listening to the gradually subsiding disturbance and
waiting for the possible appearance of one of the great pachyderms in
the tiny clearing where the dead giant lay; but although several passed
us at no great distance we saw none of them, and at length, when silence
again reigned, we cautiously emerged from our hiding place and pushed
our way up-wind still deeper into the recesses of the forest.

Breathless and perspiring profusely with the exertion of worming our way
through the undergrowth, we had progressed about half a mile when, away
on our left, and apparently only a few yards distant, we suddenly heard
a loud blowing sound, followed by several grunts, and the next instant a
big cow elephant, with a calf at her heels, burst through the
intervening growth and came charging toward us with blazing eyes and
uplifted trunk thrust straight out in front of her. Fortunately we had
just stepped out from behind the cover of a big mahogany, and as I
doubted whether the beast had actually sighted us, I thrust Pie