de
of some bushes, take aim at the elephant he had marked down, and just as
it was passing along towards one of the pools he fired.

The piece made such a strange noise that it alarmed Jack and the
General. As for Dick, to his horror he saw the rifle fly to pieces, and
his father fall backwards upon the grass.

Dick took no notice of the elephants, which went crashing amongst the
trees, Jack getting a bullet home as they broke towards Dick, nearly
trampling him down in their course as he ran to his father's side.

To his horror Mr Rogers was insensible, surrounded by the fragments of
his shattered gun, his face bleeding profusely, and for the moment Dick
was ready to stand there wringing his hands.

But common sense prevailed.

There was no running into the next street to fetch a doctor, so he
hastily knelt down, and began to pour the contents of his bottle upon
his handkerchief, washing away the blood, and bandaging up the cuts upon
his father's forehead.

This cooling application of water had the effect of making the injured
man open his eyes, and reply to the eager inquiries of his sons.

"Only a bit stunned, my boys, and a few cuts," he said. "It is a mercy
I was not killed."

"What a bad rifle!" exclaimed Jack indignantly, as he helped his father
to rise.

"What a bad sportsman, you should say, my boy," replied his father,
whose face now looked less pallid. "I ought to have known better. My
rifle must have been plugged with mud from my fall, and I did not
examine it first. That would burst the best gun ever made."

He found he could walk without assistance, and after kneeling down by a
pool that had been left unsullied by the elephants, and having a good
drink and bathe at his wounds, he rose up refreshed, and turned with the
boys to see what was the result of their shots.

Better than they had expected. Two elephants were badly wounded, and
Chicory had marked them down in a clump of trees half a mile away.

It required caution now to approach them, for the beasts would probably
be furious; but by skilful management they were staked, and the boys,
after two or three shots a-piece, succeeded in laying the monsters low,
each falling over upon its side with a terrible crash.

The General soon hacked out the good-sized tusks, and these were borne
to the grove where the horses had been left to graze.

"It never rains but it pours," said Mr Rogers quietly, as he slapped
the flanks and neck of his h