THE FATE OF THE AHNAY PAYEE. 177 



of his great ears thrown forward. The movement 

 disconcerted Theobald, who fired just as the brute 

 stopped. The shot struck six inches too low, in the 

 hollow where the bones of the head are thickest. 

 There was no time for a second shot. With a scream 

 of rage the elephant was on them, and over them, 

 his tusks embedded deep in the opposite bank. 

 Apparently he had not noticed the nullah in his 

 wild charge, or he could not stop himself if he 

 had seen it. 



Theobald and his shikaree were knocked off the 

 ledge by great masses of earth hurled from the top 

 of the bank, which gave way under the enormous 

 weight of the charging elephant. In the clouds of 

 dust raised by the falling earth and the struggles 

 of the elephant they managed to scramble to their 

 legs and run up the nullah, without thought of their 

 guns, which fell from their hands when they were 

 knocked over by the clods of earth. The instinct 

 of self-preservation was strong within them, and 

 they knew their lives were not worth a minute's 

 purchase once the elephant got on to his legs. Up 

 stream they scrambled as best they cculd, over the 

 boulders and loose stones, looking round nervously 

 for a place up which they could clamber out of the 

 nullah ; but none offered. They had barely got 

 fifty paces, when they heard a heavy fall of earth, 

 and knew that the elephant had brought down the 

 bank in which its tusks were embedded and was 

 again on its feet. It appeared dazed for the 

 moment, and then looked round in search of its 

 foes. The noise of their running soon attracted 



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