364 The Hunting Grounds 



rustling in the cover close to where we were standing, 

 and almost immediately the tusker made his appear- 

 ance, coming directly towards him, when he fired a 

 couple of hurried shots and took to his heels, seeing 

 that he did not drop. I fancy that he must have lost 

 his presence of mind when he saw the huge brute 

 advancing towards him ; as only one of his shots had 

 taken effect, and that high up in the forehead. I 

 congratulated him upon his escape, which was cer- 

 tainly due more to good luck than good management, 

 as in the position I was in, and the distance, it must 

 have been entirely a chance shot of mine that drop- 

 ped him. The sound of our guns caused a great 

 panic in the herd ; and they rushed about crashing 

 through the jungle at a great pace, which led me to 

 suppose that they would not pull up until they had 



covered a good deal of ground ; and as K found 



he had sprained his ancle in his flight, which pre- 

 vented him from walking comfortably, we gave up all 

 thoughts of further pursuit. Leaving two of our 

 people to cut out the tusks, which were small, not 

 exceeding thirty pounds in weight, we made the best 



of our way back to the hut, where we found B 's 



party busily occupied in preserving the skins of two 

 bison, which they had killed the day previous. 



During the afternoon, heavy banks of dark clouds 

 arose, which I knew prognosticated a storm ; so we 

 strengthened our hut, and spread extra comblies on 



