26o ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. XXX 
first, and instantly dropped him with a solid *577 
bullet in the brain. He never budged again! I 
promptly emptied the second barrel into one of the 
remaining two, but as I had slightly miscalculated 
the vicinity of his heart, owing to intervening 
bamboos, the bullet struck him too far back, and 
like lightning, he made tracks for a dense belt of 
bush in our rear and from which we had just 
emerged. The third animal, scared by the first 
shot, had already made good his escape, so handing 
my heavy rifle to my tracker, Malingum, I caught 
my 1075 mm - m y other tracker, Simba, and 
dashed after the wounded elephant. Now, several 
hundred yards on the other side of the same patch 
of bush, my carriers, having laid down their burdens 
and moved some distance away from the spoor, on 
hearing the first shot—a plan I invariably make 
them adopt for their own safety—stood awaiting 
developments. On seeing the elephant suddenly 
emerge from the bush into the open country 
in which they had come to a halt, they began 
to shout in the hope of turning him, and 
the animal, thoroughly scared by their lusty 
yells, immediately changed his plans, slewed 
round, and came running back at a great pace 
towards the friendly cover of the thicket of 
bamboos. At this juncture, my trackers and I, 
unaware of what had happened, although we had 
