horseback. The elephant is so formidable an animal,
and usually is so fierce, especially when wounded and hunted, that few
African sportsmen venture to follow him on foot into his dense woody
retreats. It is customary to drive the herd, when discovered, into the
most open country, this driving being accomplished either by setting
fire to the dried grass, by making large bonfires, or by discharging
fire-arms, and thus causing the herds to leave a secure retreat for one
less sheltered. It is not unfrequently a matter of two or three days,
to drive elephants into a good and favourable country; and upon this
driving being judiciously carried out, much of the success of the hunt
depends. There are very many men whose livelihood depends entirely on
elephant hunting. They farm but little, have few cattle, but devote
their time mainly to hunting; and in a country so untrodden as was
Africa some years ago, there was no want of game, and thus a man
provided with horse, gun, powder, and lead, might live independent of
almost all else.

Hans Sterk was a man who had been devoted to sport from his childhood.
His father was a Dutchman who had early in his colonial career gone upon
the outskirts of civilisation, and had been one of the pioneers to slay
the wild beasts, and teach the savage man that the white man is the
master over the black. Hans' mother was an English woman, an emigrant
who had ventured into Africa, and had there found a home. But both his
parents had been cruelly murdered by the Kaffirs in one of their attacks
upon the colonists; and at a very early age he had found himself owner
of a waggon, some spans of oxen, a few head of cattle and horses, and
had thus every means at his disposal for indulging in hunting; and as
his taste led him in pursuit of the elephant, he soon became famed as an
unerring marksman, an expert spoorer, and one of the most determined
elephant hunters. On more than one occasion also he had distinguished
himself in commandoes against the Kaffir tribes. Thus before he was
twenty he had obtained a reputation for skill and bravery, and at that
age was known as Hans Sterk, the elephant hunter. How well he deserved
the title, the result of his day's sport just related amply shows.

The morning after Hans' return to the sleeping-place was fine, and well
suited for spooring or shooting. There had been a heavy dew, and the
wind was light, so that no extra noises disturbed the bushes, and
rend