A LUCKY KILL. 



I could gain the path before the elephant had passed by. 

 I dashed on, encumbered as I was by the heavy gun, 

 and reached the path just as the huge elephant, between 

 nine and ten feet high, was emerging from the swamp. 

 It was the bull. His long tusks gleamed before me as 

 he approached me, dangling his trunk and flapping his 

 ears. My hand was shaking with excitement and ex- 

 haustion, but there was not a moment to be lost, for he 

 was twelve paces from me and was nearing me at every 

 stride ; so I swung up the heavy gun to my shoulder, and 

 covering his forehead fired. I did not wait to observe 

 the result of my shot, but threw myself down to one side 

 of the path. The next instant I heard my orderly's 

 voice shouting: " He is down, tuan! He is down." And 

 rising again there I saw him lying stone dead before me. 

 He had fallen at just eleven yards from the muzzle of 

 the gun. His feet now make excellent footstools, and 

 his tusks, each four feet nine inches in length, adorn our 

 house as trophies. He fell with his knees doubled up 

 under him, and was lying on the ground in the attitude 

 a horse or a cow would assume if sleeping lying down. 

 I lay on my back for five minutes to recover breath, and 

 then rose. I was dreadfully thirsty, and emptied the 

 water bottle, after which I climbed upon his back and 

 sat there smoking a most satisfactory pipe of triumph- 

 Moments like these amply repay the sportsman for 

 all the hardship, fatigue and exposure he has undergone, 

 and success is all the sweeter when it follows upon the 

 heels of hard work and despondency. I would say to 

 all hunters: " Never mind if you are unlucky, go on, luck 

 will come sooner or later ". What became of the cow, 

 I know not. Probably, having heard the shot, she made 

 her exit from the swamp by another route. 



