248 ELEPHANT-HUNTING [ch. x 



animal was a cow or a bull, and whether, if a bull, it 

 carried heavy enough tusks. Then we saw that it was 

 a big bull with good ivory. It turned its head in my 

 direction and I saw its eye, and I fired a little to one 

 side of the eye, at a spot which 1 thought would lead 

 to the brain. 1 struck exactly where I aimed, but the 

 head of an elephant is enormous and the brain small, 

 and the bullet missed it. However, the shock momen- 

 tarily stunned the beast. He stumbled forward, half 

 falling, and as he recovered I lired with the second 

 barrel, again aiming for the brain. This time the bullet 

 sped true, and as I lowered the rifle from my shoulder, 

 1 saw the great lord of the forest come crashing to the 

 ground. 



But at that very instant, before there was a moment's 

 time in which to reload, the thick bushes parted im- 

 mediately on my left front, and through them surged 

 the vast bulk of a charging bull elephant, the matted 

 mass of tough creepers snapping like packthread before 

 his rush. He was so close that he could have touched 

 me with his trunk. 1 leaped to one side and dodged 

 behind a tree trunk, opening the rifle, throwing out the 

 empty sliells, and slipping in two cartridges. Meanwhile 

 Cuninghame fired right and left, at the same time throw- 

 ing himself into the bushes on the other side. Both liis 

 bullets went home, and the bull stopped short in liis 

 charge, v.heeled, and immediately disappeared in the 

 thick cover. ^Ve ran forward, but the forest had closed 

 over his wake. We heard him trumpet shrilly, and 

 then all sounds ceased. 



The 'Ndorobo, who had quite properly disappeared 

 when this second bull charged, now went forward and 

 soon returned with the report that he had fled at speed, 

 but was evidently hard hit, as there was much blood on 



