260 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER CH. xxx 



first, and instantly dropped him with a solid "577 

 bullet in the brain. He never budged again ! I 

 promptly emptied the second barrel into one of the 

 remaining two, but as I had slightly miscalculated 

 the vicinity of his heart, owing to intervening 

 bamboos, the bullet struck him too far back, and 

 like lightning, he made tracks for a dense belt of 

 bush in our rear and from which we had just 

 emerged. The third animal, scared by the first 

 shot, had already made good his escape, so handing 

 my heavy rifle to my tracker, Malingum, I caught 

 my 10*75 mm - fro m m y other tracker, Simba, and 

 dashed after the wounded elephant. Now, several 

 hundred yards on the other side of the same patch 

 of bush, my carriers, having laid down their burdens 

 and moved some distance away from the spoor, on 

 hearing the first shot a plan I invariably make 

 them adopt for their own safety stood awaiting 

 developments. On seeing the elephant suddenly 

 emerge from the bush into the open country 

 in which they had come to a halt, they began 

 to shout in the hope of turning him, and 

 the animal, thoroughly scared by their lusty 

 yells, immediately changed his plans, slewed 

 round, and came running back at a great pace 

 towards the friendly cover of the thicket of 

 bamboos. At this juncture, my trackers and I, 

 unaware of what had happened, although we had 



