re, and
kept it blazing away for some time.

The fire had well-nigh burnt out when Jan returned with the other tusk.
He told us that on his way back he had seen the spoors of the elephants,
and that if we chose to follow them, he was sure that we should come up
with them, and should most probably find those we had wounded.

We now uncovered our elephant's foot, which Jan pronounced to be as
satisfactorily cooked as his own countrymen could have done it. The
flesh was soft and gelatinous, greatly resembling calves-head, and was
so tender that we could scoop it out with a spoon. I don't know that I
ever enjoyed a meal more. Although we could not venture to load our ox
with more than the two tusks we had already obtained, my uncle, hoping
soon to fall in with Mr Welbourn, determined to try and obtain the
tusks from the other two elephants we had wounded, and to leave them
concealed, until we could send for them. There was the risk, of course,
of their being discovered by the natives, as we were now approaching an
inhabited part of the country. We had still a couple of hours of
day-light, and as I did not feel myself fatigued with my previous
exertions, my uncle agreed to allow me to accompany him, while Jan was
left to clean the tusks and to prepare straps for carrying them on the
back of the ox.

We soon discovered the elephants' spoor, and followed it for some
distance, the splashes of blood we found here and there showing that the
wounded animal had stopped to rest. It would be necessary, as we
approached them, to be cautious, as they would be on the alert and ready
to revenge themselves for the injury they had received.

We now every moment expected to come upon them. We stopped to listen;
no sound could we hear to indicate that they were near us. We,
therefore, went on until, reaching the top of a hillock, we caught sight
of some water glittering among the trees. Advancing a little further a
small lakelet opened out before us, in the shallow part of which, near
the shore, stood an elephant, sucking up the water with his trunk and
throwing it over his neck and shoulders.

My uncle remarked that he was sure it was the animal we had wounded, but
that he was still too far off to give us a chance of killing him. We
were making our way among the trees, hoping to got near without being
perceived--though that was no easy matter as he kept his sharp eyes
turning about in every direction--when, from behind the gr