ELEPHANTS 



159 



was majestic. He seemed to rise up forward, the curved 

 trunk held high in the air; then, with slow sidelong 

 motion, gently collapsed stern-first till he finally fell 

 over, lying like a dark-red mountain towering over the 

 green Hags. 



Hurrying forward past him — with hardly time even 

 to glance at those glorious tusks — and running easily on 



'^SMvnf^ 



"turned on rs with cocked eaes and upraised trunk. 



a broad causeway of broken-down reeds (while the 

 elephants plunged and struggled in bog), we soon over- 

 hauled the second wounded bull He also, at seventy 

 yards, turned on us with cocked ears and a shrill shriek. 

 "Shoot," said Ali, "he's going to charge." But his 

 end was at hand. A *450 solid knocked him backwards 

 over — passing through the hollow top of one tusk where 

 embedded in the skull (near the eye). He struggled to 



regain his feet when W gave him a finisher, and he 



fell with his face to the foe. 



Four enormous elephants now lay dead — three 

 behind us, the fourth fifty yards ahead. Of this last, 



