214 FIRE AT THE ROGUE. 



time during tlic rain, but had moved off two hours ago. Their marks "were 

 all but obliterated, and the tracking was slow in consequence. The bamboos 

 showered drops of water upon us as we brushed against them, and the low- 

 lying places had been converted into a succession of pools by the recent 

 deluge. After proceeding about a mile we heard the pair feeding in a 

 hollow amongst thick bamboo-cover, which, however, hid them from view. 

 They were moving slowly forwards, breaking a branch now and again, but 

 heading steadily towards the clearing they had left in the morning. The regu- 

 lar, slow, crunching sound made by their grinders as they chewed the tough 

 wood and leaves, was the only interruption, except the occasional crash of a 

 bough, to the stillness of the dark and gloomy afternoon in the deep forest. 

 The cover they were in was too thick to be entered with any degree of safety; 

 whilst the tusker's notoriety — though in reality he was no more dangerous 

 before a sportsman's rifle than any other elephant — made us observe extra 

 caution. We followed the slowly advancing pair, keeping parallel with them 

 outside the cover in the open tree-forest. At last they came near the edge, and 

 I saw their heads indistinctly amongst the bamboo-fronds. Ordering Jaffer 

 and Bettay Gouda (the other gun-bearer) and the Kurrabas to keep behind a 

 thick bamboo-clump, I took my 4-bore rifle and crept forward for ten yards 

 — which brought me to within thirty of the elephants. The muckna first 

 passed slowly along, keeping inside the cover, and then the tusker. The 

 latter gave me but an indistinct shot, which I, however, thought it advisable 

 to take, as evening was drawing on apace ; so I fired from a rest on a white- 

 ants' hill behind which I knelt. The ground was wet and slippery, and I 

 made a scramble in gaining my feet, which rather delayed me in getting 

 back to the bamboo-clump for my second rifle. I glanced over my shoulder 

 as I reached its shelter. Horrors ! both elephants were close behind me, 

 their heads bobbing spasmodically with the pace at which they were shuf- 

 fling along ; they were actually coming through the heavy curtain of smoke 

 which hung in the damp air like a fog behind me ! I thought we were 

 doomed, at least to a race for our lives — and a race against an elephant is 

 one which admits of no doubt as to the winner ; but almost in the same 

 instant it flashed across me that the elephants could not possibly have seen 

 me and commenced a simultaneous chase so instantaneously. No — it was 

 clear they were running away ; so collaring Jaffer and Bettay Gouda, and 

 pressing them close against the bamboo -clump to prevent their moving, I 

 waited in breathless anxiety. The two Kurrabas had looked out and 

 seen the elephants coming ; and without more ado — thinking we were 

 discovered — they now started off before the monsters, almost under their 

 trunks, doubling like hares, without even looking behind them. The ele- 



