ne might have heard them two hundred
yards or more away.

"After a time, while I was still hesitating what to do, either they got
a whiff of my wind, or they wearied of standing still, and determined
to start in search of game. At any rate, as though moved by a common
impulse, they bounded suddenly away, leap by leap, and vanished in the
depths of the forest to the left. I waited for a little while longer to
see if there were any more yellow skins about, and seeing none, came to
the conclusion that the lions must have frightened the elephants away,
and that I had taken my stroll for nothing. But just as I was turning
back I thought that I heard a bough break upon the further side of the
glade, and, rash as the act was, I followed the sound. I crossed the
glade as silently as my own shadow. On its further side the path went
on. Albeit with many fears, I went on too. The jungle growth was so
thick here that it almost met overhead, leaving so small a passage for
the light that I could scarcely see to grope my way along. Presently,
however, it widened, and then opened into a second glade slightly
smaller than the first, and there, on the further side of it, about
eighty yards from me, stood the three enormous elephants.

"They stood thus:--Immediately opposite and facing me was the wounded
one-tusked bull. He was leaning his bulk against a dead thorn-tree, the
only one in the place, and looked very sick indeed. Near him stood the
second bull as though keeping a watch over him. The third elephant was
a good deal nearer to me and broadside on. While I was still staring at
them, this elephant suddenly walked off and vanished down a path in the
bush to the right.

"There are now two things to be done--either I could go back to the camp
and advance upon the elephants at dawn, or I could attack them at once.
The first was, of course, by far the wiser and safer course. To engage
one elephant by moonlight and single-handed is a sufficiently rash
proceeding; to tackle three was little short of lunacy. But, on
the other hand, I knew that they would be on the march again before
daylight, and there might come another day of weary trudging before I
could catch them up, or they might escape me altogether.

"'No,' I thought to myself, 'faint heart never won fair tusk. I'll risk
it, and have a slap at them. But how?' I could not advance across the
open, for they would see me; clearly the only thing to do was to creep
round in the shado