he ground.

At that moment he heard a shot not far off. Immediately afterwards
there was a sound of trampling feet which rapidly increased, and in a
few moments the whole band of elephants came rushing back towards him,
having been turned by the major with a party of natives. Not having
completed the loading of his gun, Tom hastily rode behind a dense bush,
and concealed himself as well as he could. The herd turned aside just
before reaching the bush, and passed him about a hundred yards off with
a tremendous rush, their trunks and tails in the air, and the major and
Wilkins, with a lot of natives and dogs, in full pursuit. Tom was
beginning to regret that he had not fired a long shot at them, when he
heard a crash behind him, and looking back saw a monstrous bull-elephant
making a terrific charge at him. It was a wounded animal, mad with rage
and pain, which had caught sight of him in passing. Almost before he
was aware of its approach it went crashing through the thicket
trumpeting furiously, and tearing down trees, bushes, and everything
before it.

Tom lay forward on the neck of his steed and drove the spurs into him.
Away they went like the wind with the elephant close behind. In his
anxiety Tom cast his eyes too often behind him. Before he could avoid
it he was close on the top of a very steep slope, or stony hill, which
went down about fifty yards to the plain below. To rein up was
impossible, to go down would have been almost certain death to horse and
man. With death before and behind, our hero had no alternative but to
swerve, for the trunk of the huge creature was already almost over the
haunch of his terrified horse. He did swerve. Pulling the horse on his
haunches, and swinging him round at the same moment as if on a pivot, he
made a bound to the left. The elephant passed him with a shriek like
that of a railway engine, stuck out its feet before it, and went sliding
wildly down the slope--as little boys are sometimes wont to do--sending
dust, atones, and rubbish in a stupendous cloud before him. At the foot
he lost his balance, and the last that Tom saw of him was a flourish of
his stumpy tail as he went heels over head to the bottom of the hill.
But he could not stop to see more; his horse was away with him, and fled
over the plain on the wings of terror for a mile in the opposite
direction before he consented to be pulled up.

Tom's companions, meanwhile, had shot two elephants--one a cow,