2O6 TALES OF A NOMAD. 



ally kill him, but he might kill me first, for there were 

 no trees about of sufficient size to protect a man. Now 

 and then as he tossed his head I got a glimpse of his 

 ears as he shook them. I determined to chance the shot 

 at his temple, guessing the spot the next time I saw his 

 ear. I knew that if I hit him anywhere about the head 

 he would come down, but if he was not shot in the brain 

 he would get up again. My design was to drop him by 

 a shot somewhere in front of the ear and thus bring him 

 on to his knees and stupefy him, and then to give him the 

 second barrel in the crease behind his shoulder. 



Accordingly I presented my gun and, waiting until I 

 saw his ear move, fired through the leaves about a foot 

 in front of it. 



He fell on his knees, but it had been raining, and the 

 air was so heavily laden with damp that the cloud of 

 smoke produced by my discharge hung in front of me, 

 obscuring everything for a few seconds, and I had to 

 wait until it had partly dissipated. The smoke was 

 dispersing. I levelled again to give him the second 

 barrel behind the shoulder, and was in the act of pressing 

 the trigger when there was a deafening report close 

 to my ear, and another cloud of smoke obscured every- 

 thing. 



The Dyak who carried the express rifle had run up 

 behind me, and placing the muzzle close to my cheek 

 had fired it off at the elephant with a view of aiding me 

 to kill it. Of course I could not see at all to fire my 

 second barrel ; and as it is a dangerous thing to stand in 

 a cloud of smoke beside a wounded elephant that is 

 getting to its legs, I had to bolt without firing the 

 .second barrel. The elephant escaped. 



My disgust can be better imagined than described. 



