208 LARGE GAME. chap. iv. 



peting all round me, so, feeling pretty sure that they 

 would drive us all out as soon as they got our wind, and 

 not relishing the tones of one who was coming up from 

 leeward of me, I got out of my prickly bed, and went up 

 to the spot where the bull had been standing. He, I 

 found, was quite dead ; but I had hardly time to secure 

 his tail before the one that I had already heard came 

 charging up, having evidently scented me, and as I rushed 

 down wind I must have passed within a couple of yards 

 of it, though luckily it did not see me. Finding it so 

 warm inside, and feeling pretty sure that I should find all 

 the hunters there already, I made for the open, another 

 of the elephants, which had been standing to leeward, 

 giving me a smart chase for a couple of minutes on my 

 way ; but I got below the wind, and was soon clear of the 

 bush, and found, as I had expected, the others already 

 outside. 



They were delighted at seeing a tail in my belt, no 

 one else having got one, though one man thought that he 

 had broken the hind-leg of a cow, but had been driven 

 away by the others before he could make sure, and if 

 he was right, as ultimately it turned out that he was, 

 the animal was as good as dead. They said that those 

 they had seen seemed very vicious and had charged 

 them savagely, and we imagined that they must be a 

 troop that we had heard of as remarkable for their bad 

 temper, and which had the previous year killed a Dutch 

 hunter. 



They were still trumpeting at intervals, but apparently 

 from the same spot, and we did not think that there was 

 any fear of their moving before nightfall, when they 



