A THRILLING CHARGE 207 



didn't stop. There was barely time for us to get out 

 of the way. I ran sideways toward a little mound 

 that furnished some protection, while Hassan, with 

 a coolness and courage that I both admired and en- 

 vied, stood still until the big elephant was within ten 

 feet of him and then leaped to one side as the three 

 beasts swept by him, carried onw r ard by the impetus 

 of their mad rush. As the big one passed it made a 

 vicious swing at him with its trunk. 



Fortunately the elephants continued in their 

 course and we followed them with my big rifle again 

 reloaded and ready. Once more they turned in 

 toward the river and were completely swallowed up 

 in the tall reeds. We again waded in after them and 

 had gone only a few yards when we once more saw 

 the angry head of the big one looming up as it came 

 toward us. I fired point-blank at the base of the 

 trunk and the beast stopped suddenly. Then it 

 slowly turned and as it was about to disappear in 

 the tall elephant grass again I fired at its backbone. 

 The huge bulk collapsed and disappeared, buried in 

 the reeds. Hassan yelled that it was dead, but we 

 couldn't see for the grass. The situation now was 

 perilous in the extreme. The river made a sharp 

 bend at this point like an incomplete letter O, with a 

 narrow neck of land through which the elephants 

 had passed when I had shot. At the narrow neck it 

 was about a hundred feet across while the depth of 

 the "O" was about three hundred feet and the width 

 about two hundred and fifty feet. This small penin- 

 sula was matted with a jungle growth of high grass 



