232 JIN ABU FINDS 



and had so increased that it was hard to believe 

 fewer than a regiment were at work; but it was 

 impossible to see twenty feet ahead. Going for- 

 ward now with the care of a cat approaching a 

 mouse I came onto tracks, and taking these 

 crawled on my stomach, that I might move the 

 more cautiously, and at the same time by getting 

 low obtain something of a view ahead, however 

 short. Thus drawing nearer and nearer the ele- 

 phants, with every nerve alert for the experience 

 of this, to me, new game, I caught my breath as I 

 saw the end of an elephant trunk reach for and 

 then twist off a branch. I could see no more, only 

 about a foot of that trunk; I lay absolutely quiet- 

 not daring to move nearer— as I was at the time 

 not over fifteen to twenty feet away. Pretty soon 

 I made out the middle top of its back; but I lost 

 the trunk and had not yet found the head. With 

 absolute precision and in perfect silence I sought 

 a position which would disclose the head, for that 

 was the shot I wanted. Minutes were consumed 

 in these shifts, for I was making no sound what- 

 ever. There came an instant when I glimpsed the 

 bottom of an elephant's ear, and determined at 

 once to make a chance shot at where I might cal- 

 culate his head to be— for there was no knowing 

 what second they might be off— and with the 

 thought came a crash and a rush as of big bodies 



