A THRILLING CHARGE 209 



mal was not dead, but was thrashing madly about 

 as if desperately wounded. Hassan said it was the 

 young elephant and that the older one was dead, 

 but this could not be determined without pushing 

 on through the reeds until we would be almost upon 

 them. This course seemed too dangerous to try. 



The river at this point was absolutely impassable 

 for animals. The banks were ten feet high and per- 

 pendicular. The water was perhaps five or six feet 

 deep and the width of the swift stream not over 

 twenty or thirty feet. The trees had interlaced their 

 roots and branches across the river and in the water. 

 Xo animal, not a tree climber, could possibly cross 

 the stream on account of the straight up and down 

 banks. 



So after a time we crept along through the grass 

 at the edge of the stream until we reached a point 

 probably forty yards from where the elephants 

 doubtless were, although quite hidden from our 

 view. There was still a tremendous threshing in the 

 low branches of the trees and in order to see the 

 animals we had to creep cautiously across the penin- 

 sula to a point about half-way, where a large, rotten, 

 dead tree stood. This gave us cover and from its 

 screen we could see the three elephants, only fifteen 

 yards away. The head of the big one was still up 

 and it was turned directly at us. It was so close 

 and so big that the effect was terrifying. 



"Mkubwa" whispered Sulimani, and that means 

 "big." So the big elephant, instead of being dead, 

 was still alive, with an impassable river at its feet 



