ELEPHANT HUNTING 
251 
I followed the trail, I stepped in the huge footprints of the 
elephant, for where such a weight had pressed there were 
no sticks left to crack under my feet. It made our veins 
thrill thus for half an hour to creep stealthily along, but a 
few rods from the herd, never able to see it, because of the 
extreme denseness of the cover, but always hearing first one 
and then another of its members, and always trying to 
guess what each one might do, and keeping ceaselessly 
ready for whatever might befall. A flock of hornbills flew 
up with noisy clamor, but the elephants did not heed them. 
At last we came in sight of the mighty game. The trail 
took a twist to one side, and there, thirty yards in front of 
us, we made out part of the gray and massive head of an 
elephant resting his tusks on the branches of a young tree. 
A couple of minutes passed before, by cautious scrutiny, we 
were able to tell whether the animal was a cow or a bull, 
and whether, if a bull, it carried heavy enough tusks. Then 
we saw that it was a big bull with good ivory. It turned 
its head in my direction and I saw its eye; and I fired a 
little to one side of the eye, at a spot which I thought would 
lead to the brain. I struck exactly where I aimed, but the 
head of an elephant is enormous and the brain small, and 
the bullet missed it. However, the shock momentarily 
stunned the beast. He stumbled forward, half falling, and 
as he recovered I fired with the second barrel, again aiming 
for the brain. This time the bullet sped true, and as I 
lowered the rifle from my shoulder, I saw the great lord of 
the forest come crashing to the ground. 
But at that very instant, before there was a moment’s 
time in which to reload, the thick bushes parted immedi¬ 
ately on my left front, and through them surged the vast 
