OH ! WHAT A SURPRISE. 57 



elephant had evidently been wounded by Dillon 

 before I met it, thus accounting for its temper. It 

 was rather a small animal, with tusks of about 30 lbs. 

 each. These were, however, beautifully matched, 

 and unusually bent in the curve. 



My comrade still kept firing, so I hurried off 

 and joined him, as he was finishing a beast similar to 

 the one I had just slain. He was in great glee ; he had 

 killed his patriarch, and the beast at his feet, as well 

 as wounding another. Naturally we went to seek his 

 mammoth. What may be imagined was the surprise 

 of all when it could not be found. There was the 

 crushed herbage on which it had fallen, also an abun- 

 dance of blood, but no elephant. My friend cursed 

 and swore a little, jumped around and stamped 

 considerably ; but this would not mend matters, so I 

 tried to pacify him. This was no easy matter to 

 accomplish, for he considered that the tusks of the 

 missing beast weighed over seventy pounds each ; 

 their loss about as good as having forty sovereigns 

 taken out of his pocket. If we intended returning to 

 camp that night, it was time to start, and, although 

 we cut across country instead of following the bends 

 of the river, it was quite dark ere we reached home. 



