II 
THE FIGHT WITH THE FOUR 
2 5 
about thirty yards behind his intended victim, I 
took hasty aim and fired, the bullet striking the 
brute in the side of the head. For an instant he 
staggered, and then came charging on again! At 
the same moment, Simba, catching his foot in a 
creeper, plunged heavily forward on his face, and 
for one awful second I thought it was all up with 
my faithful old tracker. In a flash, to my intense 
relief, he was on his feet again, but, being 
thoroughly scared, instead of running at an angle, 
dashed straight on towards me, completely ob¬ 
structing my view of the animal. Rushing past 
and slightly to the right of my man, I gave the 
elephant the contents of my second barrel in the 
forehead, the terrific impact of the bullet hurling 
him back on his haunches. The shot, however, 
struck him too high up to prove fatal, and speedily 
recovering, he made tracks for the long grass from 
which he had emerged on seeing my tracker. 
More determined than ever to bag him—for he had 
a very fine pair of tusks—I hastily grabbed my 
light rifle from Simba and gave chase. Ere he had 
gone far, I managed to place a bullet in the vicinity 
of his heart, whereupon he instantly turned, 
and, uttering a succession of short, shrill, 
screams, bore down upon me. When he was 
within forty yards of me, I fired in his face—the 
light was too uncertain for taking careful aim—but 
