HUNTING THE ELEPHANT 161 



stretched out his trunk over his fallen companion as 

 if to find out what was wrong, and then with a most 

 blood-curdling scream dashed forward right at me. 

 I had hoped, and vainly hoped, that the shot at the 

 big one would have driven him off ; but again I 

 was mistaken, and he was bent upon mischief. I 

 had one shot ready in my gun, and even waited, hoping 

 to the last that he would change his mind and alter 

 his course, until he was about to seize me with his 

 outstretched trunk. Then I fired point blank full in 

 his face with my second barrel, and jumped for my 

 life from the tree that so hardly bore my weight. 

 There was a crash close to where I had fallen, and 

 I half fancied I had missed and that the beast was 

 standing over me and that in a moment all would be 

 over. But all was perfectly still, and in a second or 

 two I sat up and commenced rapidly reloading my 

 gun, which I still held in my hand, and then peeped 

 round me. A huge black mass appeared like a rock 

 a few feet away, and I knew at once that this Was 

 the elephant. But was it dead or not? That was 

 the question. If alive, it needed but one movement 

 from myself to betray my whereabouts and he would 

 be after me, and then well, I would rather not think 

 of the consequences. Very slowly and with the utmost 

 caution I rose to my feet, keeping my gun in readi- 

 ness. There seemed no movement from the mountain 

 of flesh beside me, and I saw, at any rate, he was 

 stretched out in the attitude of death, he was so still. 

 I walked up to him as quietly as possible, gun quite 

 ready to shoulder, when up went his trunk, and, swing- 

 ing round his great head, he faced me ! Fortunately, 

 he was on his knees and had to get to his feet before 



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