A TWO MONTHS' LEAVE IX THE MALAY PENINSULA. 13 



being more than sixty yards from him, and the ground being 

 perfectly open where we had burnt it two days previously, he 

 saw me directly, and charged down forty miles an hour, his ears 

 cocked and tail high in the air, looking " beastly ugly." There 

 was no cover of any sort, and I had no spare gun, so I reserved 

 my fire till he was within fifteen yards, when I took a steady 

 aim at his temple, and fired. He collapsed in a moment, his 

 ears and tail drooped, and, wheeling round, he was staggering 

 off, when I gave him the other barrel behind the ear. He just 

 managed to gain the high rushes at the edge of the jungle 

 before he fell ; he lay there struggling and unable to rise, and I 

 of course thought that to all intents and purposes he was a 

 dead elephant; so, after loading leisurely, I waded across to 

 give him his quietus. It was now just getting dusk, and the 

 sky dark and thundery, so objects in the forest were very 

 indistinct, and I made an absurd mistake, which lost me my 

 elephant. The only part of him I could see in the thick 

 rushes was what I took to be his trunk and the outline of his 

 forehead, so, calculating the position of the brain, I gave him 

 the benefit of a steel- tipped bullet and 6 dr. of powder at five 

 yards' distance. To my amazement I found I had fired into 

 the side of his rump ; his right hind leg as he lay I had mis- 

 taken for his trunk. The shot seemed merely to act as a 

 strong stimulant, for it brought him on his legs as strong as 

 ever. The smoke hung a great deal, and in trying to get clear 

 of it my feet stuck in the swamp and I fell all my length 

 almost under him. I thought it best not to move, but lay 

 quiet with my rifle ready, expecting every moment to have the 

 great brute on me ; luckily, he had had enough of it, and 

 instead of smashing me he made off into the jungle, and I 

 never saw him again. But it was intensely disgusting losing 

 him, after I had made sure of him. 



September 24. We did not like to give up the chance of 

 finding the wounded elephant, so set off early to try and track 

 him up. We followed him up for about an hour and a half, 

 sometimes with ease and sometimes with the greatest difficulty, 



