Mildmay rose to his feet. "That fight yonder is becoming interesting,
Professor," he said. "I think it would not be amiss for us to move a
little nearer to the scene of action; for, in any case, it will be
necessary to have the ship fairly close to those three dead elephants,
to facilitate the cutting out of the ivory, to say nothing about saving
our friends a hot tramp back through the long grass. What say you?"

"I was about to suggest it, but you forestalled me," answered von
Schalckenberg. "Let us go at once."

A few minutes later the _Flying Fish_, having left her place of
concealment and risen into the air, came to earth again about a hundred
yards to windward of the carcases of the three dead elephants, and
Mildmay rejoined the others on deck to watch the combat that still raged
with unabated fury, and to observe the further movements of the little
party of hunters, who were now cautiously and watchfully creeping nearer
to the combatants.

The scene, as now viewed from the lofty elevation of the ship's deck,
was both interesting and exciting, for the drama was enacting at a
distance of not more than some two hundred yards from the spectators.
The great bull elephant and his antagonist--which was now identified as
an exceptionally large rhinoceros--were so completely occupied with each
other that the approach of the _Flying Fish_ had been quite unnoticed by
either of them, and they continued to circle round and charge each
other, making the welkin ring with their furious squeals and grunts and
trumpetings, with as much pertinacity and zest as though no flying ship
and no hunters had been within a hundred miles of them. There could be
no doubt that this was a battle to be fought out to the bitter end. The
elephant's enormous tusks were already ensanguined with his antagonist's
gore, while a long gash in his left foreleg, close to its junction with
the body, from which the blood could be seen to spurt in little
intermittent jets, testified to the skill and strength with which the
rhinoceros had used his long, curving horn; yet neither betrayed the
slightest disposition to retire from the contest. Their wounds appeared
but to goad them to greater fury, and to stimulate them to redoubled
effort. The truly amazing activity displayed by these ponderous and
unwieldy creatures was perhaps the most remarkable feature of the whole
affair. They wheeled and doubled about each other with the nimbleness
of fighting