24 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER CH. 



behaviour of his companions, stood hesitant, so, 

 seizing my second rifle from Simba, I placed a bullet 

 in his heart and another in the vertebrae of the 

 neck, bringing him down with a crash beside his 

 fellows. As there was still about half-an-hour's 

 daylight left, I determined to make an effort to 

 secure the fourth, and without waiting to examine 

 our prizes, set out in pursuit of him. Hardly had 

 we got to work on the spoor, when, much to our 

 astonishment, we heard him crashing through some 

 bamboos in our rear, evidently having circled round 

 to the spot where he had hurriedly parted from his 

 comrades. Unfortunately, he was to lee of us, and 

 getting a whiff of tainted air, plunged madly into a 

 thicket of bamboos, through which we followed him 

 with extreme difficulty. As the light was now 

 failing, and Simba was almost bent double over the 

 spoor, I thought it wise, before proceeding further, 

 to ascertain the nature of the country ahead of us, 

 so, noticing a tree about a hundred yards to our 

 left, I bade Simba go and climb it and return as 

 quickly as possible with his report. He had almost 

 reached the tree in question when, to my horror, I 

 heard a terrific scream and, next moment saw 

 Simba dashing back towards me for dear life with 

 the elephant in hot pursuit. Shouting to him to 

 turn to the left that I might have an unobstructed 

 view of the infuriated animal, who was now only 



