126 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
do but face the monster and hope for the best. All 
at once, Simba, who was just in front of me care¬ 
fully following the spoor (while I followed with rifle 
almost touching him, ready for instant action in case 
of emergency), grew rigid and pointed to the path 
a few feet in advance, across which an enormous 
black snake, having either seen or heard our 
approach, was gliding, hissing angrily as it went. 
‘ Bwana, bahati sana! ’ whispered Simba, mean¬ 
ing, ‘ Master, this presages great good luck! ’ 
Letting the reptile pass, we grimly pursued 
the elephants’ spoor, and about five o’clock came 
up with our quarry where they had been feeding 
in a small patch of bush. Carefully as we had 
approached and in spite of Simba’s rosy pre¬ 
dictions, they succeeded in getting a sniff of our 
tainted air and bolted. Exasperated with these 
successive disappointments, I felt that something 
in the nature of a desperate attempt was imperative, 
and just as they were making off, I dashed full 
speed towards a clearing, a few hundred yards 
further on to our left, in the hope of outflanking 
them, for I fully expected that, in an effort to 
reach a large patch of reedy grass beyond, they 
would traverse this intervening open space. I was 
just in time to see two of them on the point of 
vanishing into this convenient cover, and swinging 
my rifle, took a snap-shot at the hindmost, luckily 
