Mr. Roosevelt’s anil Kermit’s camp near which they got the rhino and elephant. 
branches of a young tree—elephants hard¬ 
ly ever feed at noon. A couple of minutes 
passed before, by cautious scrutiny, we were 
able to tell whether the animal we could see 
was a cow or a bull, and whether, if a bull, 
it carried heavy enough horns. Then we 
saw that it was a big bull with good ivory. 
It turned its head in my direction and I saw 
its eye; and I fired a little to one side of 
the eye, at a spot which I thought would 
lead to the brain. I struck exactly where I 
aimed, but the head of an elephant is enor¬ 
mous and the brain small, and the bullet 
missed it. However, the shock momenta¬ 
rily stunned the beast. He stumbled for¬ 
ward, half falling, and as he recovered I 
fired with the second barrel, again aiming 
for the brain. This time the bullet sped 
true, and as I lowered the rifle from my 
shoulder, I saw the great lord of the forest 
come crashing to the ground. 
But at that very instant, before there 
was a moment’s time in which to reload, 
664 
the thick bushes parted immediately on 
my left front, and through them surged the 
vast bulk of a charging bull elephant, the 
matted mass of tough creepers snapping 
like packthread before his rush. He was 
so close that he could have touched me with 
his trunk. I leaped to one side and dodged 
behind a tree trunk, opening the rifle, throw¬ 
ing out the empty shells, and slipping in two 
cartridges. Meanwhile Cuninghame fired 
right and left, at the same time throwing 
himself into the bushes on the other side. 
Both his bullets went home, and the bull 
stopped short in his charge, wheeled, and 
immediately disappeared in the thick cov¬ 
er. We ran forward, but the forest had 
closed over his wake. We heard him trum¬ 
pet shrilly, and then all sounds ceased. 
The ’Ndorobo, who had quite properly 
disappeared when this second bull charged, 
now went forward and soon returned with 
the report that he had fled at speed, but was 
evidently hard hit, as there was much blood 
