24 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
behaviour of his companions, stood hesitant, so, 
seizing my second rifle from Simba, I placed a bullet 
in his heart and another in the vertebrae of the 
neck, bringing him down with a crash beside his 
fellows. As there was still about half-an-hour’s 
daylight left, I determined to make an effort to 
secure the fourth, and without waiting to examine 
our prizes, set out in pursuit of him. Hardly had 
we got to work on the spoor, when, much to our 
astonishment, w T e heard him crashing through some 
bamboos in our rear, evidently having circled round 
to the spot where he had hurriedly parted from his 
comrades. Unfortunately, he was to lee of us, and 
getting a whiff of tainted air, plunged madly into a 
thicket of bamboos, through which we followed him 
with extreme difficulty. As the light was now 
failing, and Simba was almost bent double over the 
spoor, I thought it wise, before proceeding further, 
to ascertain the nature of the country ahead of us, 
so, noticing a tree about a hundred yards to our 
left, I bade Simba go and climb it and return as 
quickly as possible with his report. He had almost 
reached the tree in question when, to my horror, I 
heard a terrific scream and, next moment saw 
Simba dashing back towards me for dear life with 
the elephant in hot pursuit. Shouting to him to 
turn to the left that I might have an unobstructed 
view of the infuriated animal, who was now only 
