346 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA 



and never a look did he take towards the foe ; slowly and 

 heavily making for another pass up the bank a couple of 

 hundred yards from where I was. I stole along through 

 the grass as near this point as I could without coming into 

 his view, and again sat down by an elephant path up 

 which I hoped he would come. And I was not mistaken, 

 for after a breathless pause of a minute or so, his great 

 solemn forehead and gleaming tusks appeared, waving to 

 and fro as he moved, and within eighty or ninety paces of 

 my post. I felt sure of him with my big rifle if he came 

 along the path, and determined not to fire till he was quite 

 close. About forty yards only now intervened between us, 

 and I was lifting the rifle to my eye, when a short cough 

 behind caused me to look round, and there, oh horror ! 

 was a tall figure, clad in a yellow coat and bright red turban, 

 standing on an ant-Mll and striving to get up a tree ! 

 Instantly I turned again to the elephant ; but all I saw was 

 his vast round stern in full retreat through the trees. It 

 was a httle provoking, and I did not bless very much the 

 owner of that yellow garment as I sped along frantically 

 after the vanishing tusker. I remembered no more than 

 this, tiU I found myself being supported on my pony back 

 to camp. They said I had fallen senseless in the grass 

 after running about a himdred yards. The culprit was a 

 relative of the Thakur of Matin, who had stolen out after 

 me, and, coming up unperceived in the grass, had lain stiU 

 enough till the formidable aspect of the man-ldller had 

 overcome his opium-shaken nerves. He looked so utterly 

 wretched and ashamed of himself that I could not teU him 

 all that I thought of him. There was also rather a panic 

 abroad just at the time, as not long before a young son of 

 the Thakur of Uprora had been taken out after some 

 elephants which had come down near the plains, by some 

 sportsmen from Bllaspur; and a large tusker charging 

 down on them, after having been followed and shot at for 

 half a day, was trampled up before he could get clear. It 

 was a terrible disappointment, and neither B. nor I ever 

 had another chance at an elephant which we might shoot. 

 I made a number of httle excursions from Matin to the 

 principal elephant haunts of the neighbourhood. All 



