started. Seven or eight minutes of careful stalking brought me to the
mouth of the path down which the third elephant had walked. The other
two were now about fifty yards from me, and the nature of the wall of
bush was such that I could not see how to get nearer to them without
being discovered. I hesitated, and peeped down the path which the
elephant had followed. About five yards in, it took a turn round a
shrub. I thought that I would just have a look behind it, and advanced,
expecting that I should be able to catch a sight of the elephant's tail.
As it happened, however, I met his trunk coming round the corner. It is
very disconcerting to see an elephant's trunk when you expect to see his
tail, and for a moment I stood paralyzed almost under the vast brute's
head, for he was not five yards from me. He too halted, threw up his
trunk and trumpeted preparatory to a charge. I was in for it now, for
I could not escape either to the right or left, on account of the bush,
and I did not dare turn my back. So I did the only thing that I could
do--raised the rifle and fired at the black mass of his chest. It was
too dark for me to pick a shot; I could only brown him, as it were.

"The shot rung out like thunder on the quiet air, and the elephant
answered it with a scream, then dropped his trunk and stood for a second
or two as still as though he had been cut in stone. I confess that I
lost my head; I ought to have fired my second barrel, but I did not.
Instead of doing so, I rapidly opened my rifle, pulled out the old
cartridge from the right barrel and replaced it. But before I could snap
the breech to, the bull was at me. I saw his great trunk fly up like a
brown beam, and I waited no longer. Turning, I fled for dear life, and
after me thundered the elephant. Right into the open glade I ran, and
then, thank Heaven, just as he was coming up with me the bullet took
effect on him. He had been shot right through the heart, or lungs, and
down he fell with a crash, stone dead.