until it became nearly
impenetrable. To the left a comparatively open country, with fields of
maize and sugar-cane ripening in the sun. Some long reeds growing about
ten paces to their front served as a screen.

Not a word was spoken, and as he stood by the pony's side, and looked up
at its rider's slender, graceful figure, and beautiful face, the soldier
felt the duty he had undertaken a pleasant one.

Isabel sat on her horse like a statue, her lips parted showed the white
teeth, her eyes intently fixed on the island, and her face shaded from
the sun by a flapped-hat with its broad brim.

Shouts and yells came floating on the air over the Shire river,
sometimes very loud and eager, at others dying away, and at last a large
black mass slowly approached to the water side. Isabel clasped her
hands as the elephant waded into the river, ejaculating some words in
her own language; but the great animal paused, looked over the Shire
towards the opposite bank, and, whether suspecting clanger or not liking
a second swim, it returned to cover.

And now a faint column of blue smoke shot up from the island, telling
that Wyzinski had fired the bush; it thickened as the dry reeds caught
fire, the red flame darted up at intervals, and heavy masses of smoke
rolled away to leeward. The fire leaped merrily onward, making rapid
progress, and soon a loud trumpeting was heard, as, plunging into the
river, the elephants, terribly frightened, swam towards the opposite
bank, their trunks raised in the air high above the water. They would
evidently land within twenty paces of where Dona Isabel was posted.

"Tighten your bridle-rein, Dona Isabel," whispered the soldier, as he
placed his hand on the snaffle. "Be ready. Here they come!"

"Madre de Dios!" ejaculated the astonished girl. "Oh! Santa Maria, how
grand!"

Rolling about like seven huge porpoises, their backs, heads, and
flapping ears above water, the elephants came on swimming in Indian
file. The trunk raised straight up in the air gave to the black masses
a strange look, while the tusks at times lowered sent the water in their
front spurting into the air. Three out of the seven were males. They
gained the bank, the water falling from them in sheets, and then they
leisurely walked away for cover. One old male was some dozen yards
behind the rest, and this elephant Captain Hughes singled out for
himself. Landing, it stood for a second or two, the water dripping from