lodged our bullets in them before they became
alarmed," said Hans; "but we may do that now, if we ride on before them,
and keep a little wide. The elephant has very bad sight, and he may not
see us."

Hans and Victor galloped forward in the direction in which they had seen
the elephants, taking care not to follow exactly in their footmarks, and
in a very short time they saw the huge animals had collected under some
spreading acacias, and were elevating their ears to endeavour to hear if
any danger threatened them, whilst their trunks were raised to catch the
scent of any foe.

"Now," said Hans, "we may drop an elephant before we give them the
alarm. They don't know what to fear; they only know not what to make of
the sound of a gun. They have not been much hunted, it is evident, or
they would not stop so soon after being alarmed. We will now fasten our
horses to these trees, and stalk the elephants; then we can retreat to
our horses, and follow them on horseback."

"We ought to put four bullets into that large bull first," said Victor;
"then the others, not having a leader, will not know what to do."

"We will stop his getting away, Victor. I can hit him in the leg, and
can then take him between the eye and the ear. Unless your bullet is
very large, it is between the eye and the ear that you had better shoot,
on the chance of a death-shot. I have killed many of my elephants by
hitting them there."

The two hunters fastened their horses to a tree at about 300 yards from
the elephants, and then commenced stalking their noble game. The
elephants, although but lately disturbed by the discharge of a gun, had
recovered from their alarm, and stood beneath the trees, occasionally
raising their ears to listen; but the cautious advance of Hans and his
companion was conducted so quietly that even the acute hearing of the
elephant could not discover that an enemy was near him, and the two
hunters succeeded in reaching a tree that was within eighty yards of the
largest bull without being seen or heard by their formidable game. The
stake for which these men were playing was too important a one to allow
of a single chance being thrown away. Thus no word was uttered by
either, and merely a signal was given by one or the other to draw
attention to some fact which it was necessary to notice. The breaking
of a dead stick by treading on it would have been fatal to their
success, and thus it was necessary to watch where eac