spouting. The other two seemed to understand; at any rate, they did
this. Kneeling down on either side, they placed their trunks and tusks
underneath him, and, aided by his own efforts, with one great lift got
him on to his feet. Then leaning against him on either side to support
him, they marched off at a walk in the direction of the village.[*] It
was a pitiful sight, and even then it made me feel a brute.

[*] The Editor would have been inclined to think that in
relating this incident Mr. Quatermain was making himself
interesting at the expense of the exact truth, did it not
happen that a similar incident has come within his
knowledge.--Editor.

"Presently, from a walk, as the wounded elephant gathered himself
together a little, they broke into a trot, and after that I could follow
them no longer with my eyes, for the second black cloud came up over the
moon and put her out, as an extinguisher puts out a dip. I say with my
eyes, but my ears gave me a very fair notion of what was going on. When
the cloud came up the three terrified animals were heading directly for
the kraal, probably because the way was open and the path easy. I fancy
that they grew confused in the darkness, for when they came to the kraal
fence they did not turn aside, but crashed straight through it. Then
there were 'times,' as the Irish servant-girl says in the American book.
Having taken the fence, they thought that they might as well take the
kraal also, so they just ran over it. One hive-shaped hut was turned
quite over on to its top, and when I arrived upon the scene the people
who had been sleeping there were bumbling about inside like bees
disturbed at night, while two more were crushed flat, and a third had
all its side torn out. Oddly enough, however, nobody was hurt, though
several people had a narrow escape of being trodden to death.