ELEPHANTS 
157 
column of six abreast, the big bulls in the van, and 
their line extending 100 yards to the rear. Surely a 
more stirring spectacle in wild-life was never presented 
to human eye ! 
We had, of course, regained our former position, 
and now sat squatting behind that tiny bush within a 
few yards of the nearest flags. But with that wondrous 
scene enacting before our eyes no thought was spared to 
considerations either of tactics or of safety. 
Obviously the changed course of the elephants, now 
advancing directly upon us, had wholly altered the 
strategical situation. Beyond a doubt we should, at 
this moment, have retreated to some point at which we 
should still retain control of operations. By continuing 
to hold a false position, we presently lost all freedom 
of action and left ourselves to be enveloped, within a 
few more seconds, between the masses of advancing 
monsters. 
Lucky it was that the bulls came first. Had the 
prohibited sex headed the column, it is neither pleasant 
nor useful to speculate on what might have resulted. 
So directly upon our position did the unconscious 
elephants advance that, upon landing, the head of their 
column had actually to divide so as to pass our bush, 
some on either side. Within a few seconds the leading 
bull on my side (the left) towered over our low shelter 
not twenty yards ahead. But this first-comer was not 
the real monarch of the troop. His tusks, though long, 
were thin and ill-formed, crossing in front. The 
monster tusker on which my heart was set, I knew, 
came second. It had been agreed that I should fire the 
first shot; but at that critical moment, while I waited 
an instant longer to get a clear sight of No. 2, my 
wretched gun-bearer, Mabruki, .giving way to sheer 
“ funk,” fired my second gun close past my ear— 
deafening and, for a time, half-stupefying me. At the 
shot, the two great bulls on my front (the nearer being 
then fourteen yards off) stopped short, raising their heads 
and spreading their huge ears laterally as a barque sets 
