50 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
Kom. As the sun was now low in the heavens and 
the swiftly closing equatorial night not far distant, I 
began to view the situation with some uneasiness, 
for if I failed to bag Kom-Kom before dark, he 
might clear and his spoor get inextricably mixed up 
with those of other elephants. Such a contingency 
might end in our losing him altogether and prove a 
disheartening conclusion to a most arduous hunt. 
The scantiness of the blood-spoor accentuated 
my fears on this score, for had the second bullet, 
which had entered his skull above the right 
eye, merely passed through the upper portion 
of his forehead without touching his brain, 
days would probably elapse ere he succumbed 
to the effects of his wounds. 
As we were now to windward of him, a 
change of tactics was imperative, so instead of 
following his spoor we decided to make a detour. 
Here the bush presented a formidable obstacle 
to our progress, twigs and grass and creepers 
forming such a bewildering network of growth 
that we were obliged to crawl on hands and 
knees, taking care to sever the interlacing stems 
and branches silently with our knives lest we 
should give our quarry any warning sound of our 
advance. Scratched by thorns and cramped by 
this uncomfortable method of progression, we at 
length managed to approach within twelve yards 
