he second bullet followed the first, with the same result
or rather lack of result, and another louder "O-oh!" arose. Then Jana
tranquilly shut his mouth, having finished trumpeting, and as though
to give me a still better target, turned broadside on and stood quite
still.

With an inward curse I snatched the second rifle and aiming behind the
ear at a spot which long experience told me covered the heart let drive
again, first one barrel and then the other.

Jana never stirred. No bullet thudded. No mark of blood appeared upon
his hide. The horrible thought overcame me that I, Allan Quatermain,
I the famous shot, the renowned elephant-hunter, had four times missed
this haystack of a brute from a distance of forty yards. So great was
my shame that I think I almost fainted. Through a kind of mist I heard
various ejaculations:

"Great Heavens!" said Ragnall.

"_Allemagte!_" remarked Hans.

"The Child help us!" muttered Harut.

All the rest of them stared at me as though I were a freak or a lunatic.
Then somebody laughed nervously, and immediately everybody began to
laugh. Even the distant army of the Black Kendah became convulsed with
roars of unholy merriment and I, Allan Quatermain, was the centre of
all this mockery, till I felt as though I were going mad. Suddenly the
laughter ceased and once more Simba the King began to roar out something
about "Jana the Invincible and Invulnerable," to which the White Kendah
replied with cries of "Magic" and "Bewitched! Bewitched!"

"Yes," yelled Simba, "no bullet can touch Jana the god, not even those
of the white lord who was brought from far to kill him."

Hans leaped on to the top of the wall, where he danced up and down like
an intoxicated monkey, and screamed:

"Then where is Jana's left eye? Did not my bullet put it out like a
lamp? If Jana is invulnerable, why did my bullet put out his left eye?"

Hans ceased from dancing on the wall and steadying himself, lifted the
little rifle Intombi, shouting:

"Let us see whether after all this beast is a god or an elephant."

Then he touched the trigger, and simultaneously with the report, I heard
the bullet clap and saw blood appear on Jana's hide just by the very
spot over the heart at which I had aimed without result. Of course, the
soft ball driven from a small-bore rifle with a light charge of powder
was far too weak to penetrate to the vitals. Probably it did not do much
more than pierce through the skin and an inch