262 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER CH. 



heard the yells, came out of the thicket at a sharp 

 canter, and you can judge of our surprise when 

 we saw Behemoth thundering down, straight as a 

 die, in our direction, with the disconcerting mo- 

 mentum of a locomotive ! All at once, he caught 

 sight of us, and, dismayed at the unexpected en- 

 counter, pulled up and stood stock-still, as if 

 hesitating what to do. Recognizing that he had, 

 to put it metaphorically, got between the lines of 

 the enemy, he decided to give battle, and, uttering 

 a shrill scream, charged straight at me. When he 

 was about sixty yards distant, I fired in his face, 

 the bullet, however, penetrating his skull a little too 

 high to reach his brain. Instantly pressing another 

 cartridge out of the magazine into the breech, I 

 fired and struck him in the forehead ; then another ; 

 but for all the effect they had, I might as well have 

 fired them into an advancing battleship. On he 

 came as fast as ever, with lowered head and 

 unmistakable purpose ! Jerking my last cartridge 

 into the breech, and instinctively dropping to my 

 knee, I pulled the trigger, the bullet striking him 

 a little above and right between the eyes, and 

 smashing through skin and skull into his brain. 

 Down he fell with a crash, and lay only seven 

 measured paces from where I stood ! 



During this excitement, the old hunter, 

 Makakora, who had followed up close behind me 



