236 A NARROW ESCAPE. 



direction, and I saw that we were discovered to his fine sense of smell. We 

 bad been standing silently behind a thin bamboo-clump, watching him, and 

 when I first saw that he had winded us, I imagined he might take himself 

 off. But his frenzy quite overcame all fear for the moment ; forward went 

 his ears and up went his tail, in a way which no one who has once seen the 

 signal in a wild elephant can mistake the significance of, and in the same 

 instant he wheeled round with astonishing quickness, getting at once into 

 full speed, and bore straight down upon us. The bamboos by which we 

 were partly hidden were useless as cover, and would have prevented a clear 

 shot, so I stepped out into open ground the instant the elephant commenced 

 his charge. I gave a shout in the hope of stopping him, which failed. I 

 had my No. 4 double smooth-bore loaded with 10 drams in hand. 



I fired when the elephant was about nine paces distant, aiming into his 

 curled trunk about one foot below the fatal bump between the eyes, as his 

 head was held very high, and this allowance had to be made for its eleva- 

 tion. I felt confident of the shot, but made a grand mistake in not giving 

 him both barrels ; it was useless to reserve the left as I did at such close 

 quarters, and I deserved more than what followed for doing so. The smoke 

 from the 10 drams obscured the elephant, and I stooped quickly to see 

 where he lay. Good heavens ! he had not been even checked, and was 

 upon me ! There was no time to step right or left. His tusks came 

 through the smoke (his head being now held low) like the cow-catchers 

 of a locomotive, and I had just time to fall flat to avoid being hurled along 

 in front of him. I fell a little to the right ; the next instant down came 

 his ponderous fore-foot within a few inches of my left tliigh, and I should 

 have been trodden on had I not been quick enough, wlien I saw the fore-foot 

 coming, to draw my leg from the sprawling position in which I feU. As 

 the elephant rushed over me he shrieked shrilly, which showed his trunk 

 was uncoiled ; and his head also being held low instead of in charging posi- 

 tion, I inferred rightly that he was in full flight. Had he stopped I should 

 have been caught, but the heavy bullet had taken all the fighting out of 

 him. JafFer had been disposed of by a recoiling bamboo, and was now lying 

 almost in the elephant's line ; fortunately, however, the brute held on. I 

 was covered with blood from the wound inflicted by his late antagonist in 

 his left side ; even my hair was matted together when the blood became 

 dry. The mahout had jumped into the deep and precipitous nullah to our 

 left at the commencement of hostilities. 



How it was that I did not bag the elephant I cannot teU. Probably I 

 went a trifle high, but even then the shock should have stopped him. He was, 

 I believe, unable to puU up, being on a gentle incline and at fuU speed, though 



