feed well now. They will be quite fit for a gallop
after a six-miles' canter, though they are full of grass."

"The country would be fine for elephant shooting about here. The loose
sharp stones damage their feet, and they would rush from clump to clump
of wood, so that between them we should get shots from the saddle; don't
you think so, Hans?" asked Bernhard.

"Yes, we should be very successful here, and I think our trip altogether
will be a lucky one. When we return, we shall have plenty of dollars'
worth of ivory, and I shall then be quiet for a while."

Having upsaddled their horses, the hunters rode towards the forest, near
which Hans had seen the elephants. The country was one magnificent
field of flowers and game. Bucks bounded in all directions, whilst the
most stately antelopes continually crossed their path. The stately
koodoo, the noble water-buck, the striped eland, and many other
creatures rarely, if ever, seen in England, except in our museums, were
seen in numbers. But the game upon which the hunters were bent was
elephants. No temptation could induce these men to fire a shot at less
noble game, for the sound of a gun would alarm the country, and disturb
the elephants; so that there would be but slight chance of finding these
acute-scented, sharp-eared animals after they had been alarmed by a
shot. Riding steadily on, therefore, with an indifference to the
animals that they disturbed, the hunters reached the position they
desired, and there saw the game they expected. There were but four
elephants, but they were all bulls, and with fine tusks, and were
browsing without any signs of alarm.

"That elephant alone to the right I will take, if you like," said Hans;
"you ride for the other two."

"Yes, they seem all alike in tusks, so you take him. We will ride down
on them, and shoot from the saddle," said Victor.

The three hunters separated slightly, each riding down towards the
elephant he had selected, and each regulating his pace in such a manner
that he should reach his elephant at the same time that the others did.
Hans was the last to reach his elephant, as he had the farthest to go,
but was nearly ready to fire, when the double shots of Victor and
Bernhard alarmed his elephant. Firing rather hurriedly, he aimed high,
and his bullet striking the animal in the head, enraged it, so that it
charged him instantly with a fierce trumpet Hans, being well mounted,
easily avoided the charge,