dogs, the rhinoceros leaping in to deliver his stroke, and
then springing aside to avoid the thrust of the elephant's tusks with a
rapidity that rendered it difficult to follow his movements, while the
elephant countered with a quick alertness that was evidently very
disconcerting to his foe. At length they paused, as if by mutual
consent, facing each other at a distance of about half a dozen yards,
the ridiculously inadequate tail of the rhinoceros switching in quick,
angry jerks from side to side, while the elephant watched him keenly
with uplifted trunk and swiftly flapping ears. They stood thus for a
full minute, probably recovering their wind; and then the rhinoceros,
with a scarcely perceptible movement, began to edge stealthily round in
an apparent endeavour to work himself into position on his enemy's
broadside. The elephant, however, was fully on the alert, and followed
his adversary's movement with a corresponding turn of his own body,
keeping the rhinoceros still full in front of him. The movements of the
two animals gradually quickened, but it presently became apparent to the
onlookers that the rhinoceros was slowly lessening the distance between
himself and his enemy. Then suddenly, with a furious squeal, the
rhinoceros dashed straight in, with lowered head, aiming for the
elephant's chest, between his fore legs. The thud, as the two bodies
came together, could be distinctly heard by those on board the _Flying
Fish_, who also saw that the rhinoceros had at length got his blow home,
the full length of his horn being driven into his antagonist's body.
The elephant uttered a piercing shriek of pain as he felt the wound,
then he lowered his head, and, with a quick, thrusting toss, drove one
of his tusks into the groin of the rhinoceros with such tremendous force
that the weapon passed completely through the huge body, the point
coming out just above the root of the tail. Then, with a mighty groan,
he crashed to the ground, dead, with the writhing body of the rhinoceros
still impaled upon his tusk. The fight--a fight to the death, in very
deed--was over.

Meanwhile, the three hunters, who had been standing rooted to the spot
during the last few minutes of the combat, too profoundly interested to
move, rushed forward and administered the _coup-de-grace_ to the still
struggling rhinoceros.

Then the ladies and little Ida, at the professor's invitation, descended
the spiral stairway leading down to the bo