262 ADVENTURES OF AN ELEPHANT HUNTER ch. 
heard the yells, came out of the thicket at a sharp 
canter, and you can judge of our surprise when 
we saw Behemoth thundering down, straight as a 
die, in our direction, with the disconcerting mo¬ 
mentum of a locomotive! All at once, he caught 
sight of us, and, dismayed at the unexpected en¬ 
counter, pulled up and stood stock-still, as if 
hesitating what to do. Recognizing that he had, 
to put it metaphorically, got between the lines of 
the enemy, he decided to give battle, and, uttering 
a shrill scream, charged straight at me. When he 
was about sixty yards distant, I fired in his face, 
the bullet, however, penetrating his skull a little too 
high to reach his brain. Instantly pressing another 
cartridge out of the magazine into the breech, I 
fired and struck him in the forehead ; then another; 
but for all the effect they had, I might as well have 
fired them into an advancing battleship. On he 
came as fast as ever, with lowered head and 
unmistakable purpose ! Jerking my last cartridge 
into the breech, and instinctively dropping to my 
knee, I pulled the trigger, the bullet striking him 
a little above and right between the eyes, and 
smashing through skin and skull into his brain. 
Down he fell with a crash, and lay only seven 
measured paces from where I stood ! 
During this excitement, the old hunter, 
Makakora, who had followed up close behind me 
