I JUST ESCAPE BEING CRUSHED 



83 



we noted the little grey eyes fixed on ns without any change of 

 expression, that the elephants were all blind. Or was it merely 

 that we were quite beneath their notice, accustomed as they 

 were to reign in undisputed sway in their own realm ? 



We had watched the animals for so long with strained at- 

 tention that it was almost a relief when the females began to 

 move off, and thus gave the signal for opening fire. We both 

 drew trigger at once, and the Count's quarry and I both fell 

 full length at the same moment, for the elephant gun, with which 

 I had fired at one of the bulls, had again played me false. The 

 herd at first dispersed in terror ; but then gathered together 

 again to rush past the Count in single file, all but the bull at 

 which I had fired, which dashed off in another direction into 

 the bush. In my blind zeal, forgetting that I had only the one 

 charge in my left barrel followed him in close pursuit through 

 thick and thin, to find all of a sudden that, instead of his tail, I 

 had his head opposite to me, towering above me in threatening 

 might. In my mad haste I had never noticed that he had turned 

 round and was about to charge. Eather by instinct than of 

 set purpose I aimed at the little depression near the ear, and 

 fired. Before I could see for the smoke from my gun, a dull 

 thud told me that I had just escaped being crushed to death 

 like a worm. 



I now hurried in the direction from which I heard firing ; 

 but before I came up with the Count the hunt was over. He 

 had caught up the fugitive animals in about a quarter of an 

 hour, and had hit first one of the females and then a second 

 bull, the latter alone falling, whilst the former got off" with the 

 rest of the herd. Shortly before sunset we saw another herd 

 of elephants by the brook a little above the camp. 



The next day we came to a long, narrow valley running in 

 a southerly direction, shut in between the base of Mount JN'yiro 

 and the steep slope of the volcanic plateau. We camped by a 



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