VI 



"STAND STILL!" ii 



swinging his trunk backwards and forwards, until 

 he was about seventy yards from where I stood, 

 when suddenly I was dismayed to see his trunk 

 sharply raised, as if to catch a stray whiff of wind, 

 and the next instant he stopped and faced hill 

 towards us, with his head raised, and his enormous 

 ' ears spread like two sails. He took a few steps 

 towards us, raising his feet very slowly, and bringing 

 them down as if afraid of treading on a thorn. It 

 was an anxious moment ; he was evidently very 

 suspicious, but did not know what to make of us, 

 and had we remained motionless I believe he would 

 still have turned and walked on again. " Stand 

 still ! " I whispered between my teeth to Balamoya ; 

 but the sight of the advancing monster was too much 

 for him — he jumped up and bolted. The instant he 

 moved, on came the elephant, without trumpeting, 

 and with his trunk straight down. Though very 

 shaky just before, the imminence of the danger 

 braced up my nerves, and I think I never held a 

 gun steadier than upon this occasion. As he was 

 coming direct at me, and as he did not raise his 

 trunk, his chest was quite covered ; there was there- 

 fore nothing left but to fire at his head. He came 

 on at an astonishing pace, and I heard only the 

 " whish, whish" of the grass as his great feet swept 

 through it. He was perhaps twenty yards off when 

 I pulled the trigger. I aimed a little above the root 

 of the trunk and just between the eyes, and directly 

 I had fired I ran out sideways as fast as I could, 

 though I had not much running left in me. Looking 

 over my shoulder, I saw him standing with his ears 

 still up and his head slightly turned, looking 

 towards me ; the blood was pouring down his trunk 

 from a wound exactlv where I had aimed, and, as it 



