Ip2 TALES OF A NOMAD. 



gleaming before my very eyes, and I said to myself : 

 " They are mine already ". 



I sat down to take my shot. He was about forty 

 yards off and was broadside on, but was in such a thick 

 clump of nipas that I could only see his head when he 

 raised it to feed. He raised his head again, and was still 

 for a moment as he stuffed a bundle of palm leaves into 

 his mouth. Just then I covered him between the eye and 

 the ear and fired. I did not see the effect of the shot, 

 for the smoke obscured my vision, but the spoorer called 

 out : " He is down ". 



Now the Oriental elephant will always come down if 

 struck in the head, anywhere near the right place, by a 

 two-ounce ball propelled by eight drachms of powder ; 

 but unless he is shot through the brain he will get up 

 again. 



I saw the nipas swaying and shaking where he had fallen, 

 and knew he was not dead. He now began screaming 

 like a pig, and I dreaded he would get up again and 

 make off in the opposite direction without giving me 

 another chance. Excited as I was, I cast prudence to 

 the winds, and dashed forward to try and get up to him 

 before he should recover. There was no time to find 

 a way from island to island, so I jumped into the mud 

 and plunging through it tried to make a bee line towards 

 the elephant. My heavy gun was open at the breech. 

 I had extracted the empty shell, and was in the act of 

 fumbling for another cartridge as I ran forward when I 

 heard an ominous crashing and then a squeal, and the 

 next instant the nipas parted and I saw the monster 

 coming straight in my direction with trunk curled up and 

 mouth open. There had been no time to insert another 

 cartridge in the right chamber of my gun, and I had 



