128 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER CH. 



ing his way through the bush in our rear, on 

 the other side of the clearing whence we had 

 come ; and imagining that this was another 

 tusker altogether and not the dead one's companion 

 who had circled round, I snatched my rifle from 

 my gunbearer and rushed back, followed by my 

 trackers, Ntawasie and Simba. Though we 

 gradually approached, up-wind, to where we could 

 distinctly hear the noise of his movements in the 

 long grass, he must either have seen or heard us, 

 for when we were within thirty yards of him, he 

 suddenly charged us with lowered head, bursting 

 through the bush like a runaway railway engine, and 

 carrying a mass of broken branches and sundered 

 vegetation on his tusks. When he was within 

 twelve yards of me, I fired a right and left in 

 quick succession out of my double '577, striking 

 him in the forehead, but though momentarily 

 staggered by the impact, he recovered and 

 came thundering on ! As there was no 

 time to reload, and it was quite impossible to snatch 

 my light rifle from my gunbearer behind me or get 

 out of the elephant's way owing to the dense bush, 

 I felt that my fate was irrevocably sealed. In this 

 awful moment, when I had given up all hope, and 

 expected within a few seconds to be trampled out of 

 recognition, a bullet screamed past my head and 

 struck the elephant in the eye, making him swerve 



