ich were quietly feeding at a distance of about two miles away. At
length he, with a comical gesture of despair, restored the borrowed
binocular to Mildmay, and, turning to his companions, exclaimed in a
voice of feverish earnestness:

"Come, my dear friends, why do we stand idly gaping here and wasting
valuable time, when we really have not a moment to lose? We may never
have such a priceless opportunity again. Let us press forward, then,
and at all risks secure a specimen of so unique an animal as the
mammoth. If we were to achieve this and nothing more our success would
be ample repayment for all the anxious thought devoted to the designing
of our vessel, and all the money spent in her construction."

His excitement was contagious, and the baronet, after briefly arranging
with the colonel a plan of operations, invited von Schalckenberg to
follow him; Lethbridge and Mildmay going off in another direction, with
the object of getting on the other side of the animals, and, in co-
operation with the other party, driving them, if possible, within easy
distance of the harbour in which the _Flying Fish_ lay at anchor.

To do this a wide detour was necessary, and it was nearly an hour and a
half later when the four men found themselves in a proper position to
commence the operation of "driving." They had arranged themselves in
the form of a semicircle round the herd, at a distance of about a
quarter of a mile away, and, at a signal from the baronet, all hands
advanced toward the huge creatures, shouting and gesticulating to the
utmost extent of their several powers.

The mammoths, utterly unsuspicious of danger, had been quietly feeding
among the long grass during the approach of their enemies; but on the
baronet's first signal shout they paused, and, facing rapidly round in
the direction of the noise, raised their trunks in the air and waved
them slowly from side to side as though scenting the air. The hunters
now redoubled their exertions, fully expecting that, on seeing them, the
animals would wheel about and shamble off in the required direction.
But, to their dismay, the creatures, instead of doing this, no sooner
caught sight of the party than, with upraised trunks and harsh trumpet-
like screams of rage and defiance, they charged furiously straight down
upon them. The herd numbered ten individuals, four of which appeared to
instantly constitute themselves the defenders of the party; and each of
these promptly