2IO A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



beautiful broadside shot, I pulled the trigger, but again 

 only the cap snapped.^ But this time the elephant 

 spun round, and charged at once in the direction 

 of the noise, trumpeting fearfully. I made a dive 

 sideways, not daring to" run, as he would certainly have 

 seen me. The huge beast luckily did not hit us off 

 quite correctly, but came to a halt not ten yards away, 

 turning from side to side, and testing the wind with 

 the upturned end of his trunk. 



At last, to my intense relief, in which no doubt 

 my two companions shared, he went off at a run. 1 

 now thought of giving him up, which I would not have 

 done had not my gun played me false ; but at the 

 instant hearing voices to my right, which I recognised 

 as those of my own Makalakas, of whom I had seen 

 and heard nothing during the hunt, shouting " Nansi, 

 soree ! " (There he is, sir), I took my other gun and 

 again went forwards. On crossing an opening I 

 caught sight of my irascible friend going along just 

 within the edge of the bush on the farther side. My 

 Kafirs were shouting like fiends beyond him ; so, 

 imagining the row would turn him, I skirted along the 

 edge of the bush in the hope of cutting him off, but 

 I never saw him again. He broke right through my 

 line of beaters, and going to the water's edge, crossed 

 over to the other island, and the canoes not being 

 handy, I had to stop. 



I now tell in with the main body of my followers, 

 who had carefully kept out of sight during the hunt. 

 I told them I had killed one elephant, at which they 

 seemed greatly delighted, and we at once set off 



1 These missfires were probably owing to some minute piece of leaf 

 or bark, or other foreign body, which, as I passed thi-ough the jungle, 

 had fallen into the leathern powder sack slung at my side, and clioked 

 up tlie bottom of the nipple, as, on pouring a few giains of powder into 

 it from the outside, it at once ignited. 



