96 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



wing-like ears protruding on either side like 

 the sails on a dhow. Two shiny tusks of ivory, 

 fully six feet long, were pointed at my chest, 

 and the towering trunk between them gave 

 the head a fiendish look not often found outside 

 of Hades. The other elephants took up the 

 trumpeting, and the uproar was appalling. 



"My rifle was at my shoulder from the second 

 the brute began his charge, and the instant 

 that he hove in sight I fired both barrels point- 

 blank into his face. Without a second's hesi- 

 tation I reached back to my gun bearer for the 

 '450' and brought it to position. Immense 

 though the brute was, he looked three times his 

 normal size as I cast my eyes along the bar- 

 rels levelled at his head not five feet away. I 

 pressed one trigger, then the other, but there was 

 no report, and with a feeling of horror I real- 

 ised that my gun bearer, in the excitement of the 

 moment, had failed to raise the hammers. 



"Before I could lower the rifle from my 

 shoulder the brute was upon me! With a 

 scream of rage he twined his trunk about my 

 body and, lifting me high above his head, 

 brandished me about in the air as though I 

 were a feather. Every instant I expected to be 



