VI PANIC-STRICKEN ELEPHANTS iii 



and do you fire at the one with the long white tusks 

 on the left," whispered W. " Right you are ! " 

 was the reply, and the next moment we fired. I 

 just had time to see my elephant fall on his knees, 

 when he was hidden by the troop of cows that, 

 awakened from their sleep by the shots, and not 

 knowing exactly where the danger lay, came rushing 

 towards us in a mass, one or two of them trumpeting, 

 and others making a sort of rumbling noise. 

 Seizing our second guns and shouting lustily, we 

 again pulled trigger. Our Hottentot boy John, 

 and five of our Kafirs, who still carried guns, also 

 fired ; on which the herd turned and went off at 

 right angles, enveloped in a cloud of dust. My 

 gun had only snapped the cap, but my Kafir, to 

 whom I threw it back, thinking in the noise and 

 hurry that it was discharged, reloaded it on the top 

 of the old charge — a fact which I only found out, to 

 my sorrow, later on. The cloud of sand and dust 

 raised by the panic-stricken elephants was at first 

 so thick that we could distinguish nothing ; but, 

 running behind them, I soon made out the bull I 

 had wounded, which I recognised by the length and 

 shape of his tusks. He was evidently hard hit, and, 

 being unable to keep up with the herd, he turned 

 out, and went off alone ; but he was joined almost 

 immediately by four old cows, all with small, insig- 

 nificant tusks, and, instead of running away, they 

 walked along quite slowly, first in front of and then 

 behind him, as if to encourage him. Seeing how 

 severely he was wounded, I at once went after him, 

 accompanied only by my two gun-carriers, Nuta and 

 Balamoya, W. and the rest of the Kafirs going on 

 after the troop. My bull was going so slowly that 

 I had no difficulty in threading my way through the 



