A Narrow Escape. 91 



the four-ounce rifle perpendicularly, I fired exactly 

 under his throat. I thought he would fall upon me 

 and crush me, but this shot was the only chance, as B. 

 was perfectly helpless. 



A dense cloud of smoke from the heavy charge of 

 powder for the moment obscured everything. I had 

 jumped out of the way the instant after firing. The 

 elephant did not fall, but he had his death wound : the 

 ball had severed his jugular, and the blood poured 

 from the wound. He stopped, but collecting his 

 stunned energies he still blundered forward toward B. 

 He, however, avoided him by running to one side, and 

 the wounded brute staggered on through the jungle. 

 We now loaded the guns ; the first rogue was quite 

 dead, and we followed in pursuit of rogue number two. 

 We heard distant shots, and upon arriving at the spot 

 we found the gun-bearers. They had heard the 

 wounded elephant crushing through the jungle, and 

 they had given him a volley just as he was crossing the 

 river over which the herd had escaped in the morning. 

 They described the elephant as perfectly helpless from 

 his wound, and they imagined that he had fallen in the 

 thick bushes on the opposite bank of the river. As I 

 before mentioned we could not cross the river on 

 account of the torrent, but in a few days it subsided, 

 and the elephant was found lying dead in the spot 

 where they supposed he had fallen. 



Thus happily ended the destruction of this notable 

 pair ; they had proved themselves all that we had heard 

 of them, and by their cunning dodge of hiding in the 

 thick jungle they had nearly made sure of us. We 

 had killed three rogues that morning, and we returned 

 to our quarters well satisfied. 



