160 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



being but slightly hurt, with a fearful trumpeting he 

 came dashing full speed straight at me. 



To record the next few seconds needs considerable 

 time, for whereas the acute crisis was past in a moment 

 it seemed a lifetime to me. As the huge monster came 

 along 1 the second elephant, also a very large bull, joined 

 him, catching sight of me as I sat perched upon my 

 tiny sapling. The awful noise alone was almost enough 

 to drive one mad, or to at least upset my calcula- 

 tions, made with a view to stopping the onward course 

 of the two great beasts. At the same moment that 

 the two started their headlong rush for me the third 

 elephant caught sight of the porters at forty yards to 

 the left, they having left their shelter to find out the 

 result of the two shots fired, and immediately gave 

 chase ; but what happened there I did not know until 

 afterwards, as my own predicament was quite enough 

 to demand my entire attention. 



Immediately I had fired the second shot, which had 

 such disastrous results, I commenced reloading, and 

 by the time I had rammed in the second cartridge 

 and closed up the breech the bigi bull was less than 

 ten paces from me, still coming right at me with 

 trunk extended to its utmost limit. In a twinkling 

 I had fired, hardly waiting to get the gun to my 

 shoulder. There was an awful crash, and I hardly 

 knew what had happened, for mud and water were 

 showered over me but yes, No. i was down, the bullet 

 had gone true, and a large black mass lay almost 

 at my feet. But what about No. 2 ? He still came 

 on. He had been a little behind the big one in start- 

 ing, but now he, too, was quite close. When he saw 

 the big bull fall all of a heap he stopped short, 



