A TALE OF THREE ELEPHANTS. 2O$ 



I had seen spoor of wild cattle about, so I halted my 

 people in the jungle before we emerged, and taking 

 my express rifle went forward to reconnoitre. 



Whether it was that I was tired or careless I know not, 

 for my eye failed in its duty on this occasion. I was 

 walking along the edge of the glade when casting 

 my eyes to the left I started, for there was a wild bull 

 not forty yards off, feeding quietly with his head almost 

 towards me. I aimed at his collar and fired. At the same 

 moment there was a rumbling, swishing sound, and I 

 realised that a troop of them were galloping across me 

 to gain the cover of the jungle. I only caught fleeting- 

 glimpses of them as they sped amongst the brackens, 

 so I waited until they crossed the open strip which 

 encircled the glade and separated it from the jungle. 

 As they rushed across it I covered another well forward 

 and fired. He rolled over at once and lay there with- 

 out a kick. On looking back at the first one I had fired 

 at, I saw that he too had dropped dead on the spot. 



I left two natives to encamp at the place in order to 

 drive away the wild pigs from the carcases. Apropos 

 of the wild pigs, I must relate an incident so extra- 

 ordinary that but for the fact that I made it known at 

 once and that the witnesses are still living I should fear 

 to be put down as a romancer. 



I was going up a river in a prahu, and, being anxious 

 to shoot something for my people, was on the look-out 

 for game. 



I saw something moving amidst the brackens which 

 fringed the right bank about sixty yards higher up 

 stream, and catching a glimpse of something dark, took 

 it to be a deer. 



I fired a shot at hazard into the brackens where I saw 



