ELEPHANTS 



us. We stopped to hold a council, when, without a 

 moment's warning, the elephant uttered a tremendous 

 snort, turned round, and came back down the track like 

 a locomotive gone mad ! I retreated a few yards back 

 from the corner I was at until the elephant could no longer 

 see me, and when his head appeared round the corner I 

 let him have it, aiming for the fatal ear shot. It failed to 

 drop him but he heeled over like a ship in a storm, turned 

 back, rushed into the thickest part of the jungle, and simply 

 tore around, smashing down everything he could lay hold 

 of I never heard such a row ! During this I and my men 

 took stock of our situation and managed to get to the 

 neighbourhood of a fair-sized tree with " buttress " roots. 

 Just after reaching it there was a lull in the smashing per- 

 formance which had been going on only about 40 or 50 

 yards away, but a few moments later we heard the 

 " tornado " coming straight for us again. 



The Moormen disappeared somewhere, and old Naynda 

 Arachi stood pluckily near me with the " Paradox," whilst 

 I took my stand by the side of our tree with the 8-bore 

 ready. So thick was the undergrowth that I never saw a 

 bit of the brute until his head smashed through the mass 

 of creepers within 10 feet of me. I had no time to aim, 

 but fired full at his head as best I could, the only result 

 being that he screamed with rage and came striding over 

 the buttresses of the roots to get at me. This was un- 

 pleasant, so I backed away round the tree, always facing 

 him, dodging his trunk, which was hovering over me, and 

 getting over the buttresses as best I could. Finally, in 

 desperation, I fired my second barrel right up into the under 

 side of his head, and this gave him such a staggerer that 

 he left me and made off. As he went I was amused, on 

 looking round, to see old Naynda Arachi let fly both barrels 



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