258 The Hunting Grounds 



ally forward, nearly capsizing me in her course, and 

 tore up a wild date within three yards of the spot 

 where I was standing. 



As she did not appear, however, to notice me, but 

 went off trumpeting in an opposite direction to that 

 taken by the rest of the herd, I did not molest her 

 at the time, for I felt too anxious to secure the 

 tusker, whom I found stone-dead, with his fore-legs 

 doubled under him, his hind ones stretched out, and 

 his tusks deeply embedded in the ground with the 

 fall. 



I had hardly made sure of his being dead when 

 Googooloo called my attention by a signal, and turn- 

 ing round I saw my quondam friend, the female who 

 gave the alarm, helping a young one over some rough 

 ground about a couple of hundred yards distant. As 

 she was going off at a shuffling trot that forbad any 

 hope I might have of overtaking her, I took a steady 

 aim at the young one, hitting it severely and rolling 

 it over ; the smoke had scarcely cleared away, and I 

 had just snatched a loaded gun from Chineah (who 

 ran like a cat up a tree) when down she came on me 

 with a hoarse roar of vengeance. I let her charge to 

 within twenty paces from me, when I gave her a 

 right and left full in the forehead, which stopped her 

 career, and brought her to her knees, and Googooloo, 

 who stood steadily by my side, handed me my second 

 gun, with which I gave her a "finisher" as she was 



