horn to horn, and the
smash could be heard at the camp where the porters and the soldiers stood
gazing open-mouthed at the battle between the two great brutes charging
each other in the low evening light, fighting with the ferocity of tigers
and the agility of cats.

Adams, close up as he was, had a better view, and unless he had seen with
his own eyes, he could not have believed that two animals so heavy and
unwieldy could display such nimbleness and such quickness of ferocity.

It was the wickedest sight, and it was brought to an end at last by the
rifle of Berselius.

Curiously enough, neither brute had injured the other very much. The horns
which, had they been of ivory, must have been shivered, were intact, for
the horn of a rhinoceros is flexible; it is built up of a conglomeration
of hairs, and though, perhaps, the most unbreakable thing in the universe,
it bends up to a certain point just as a rapier does.

Next morning, two hours after daybreak, Felix, who was scouting just ahead
of the column, came running back with news he had struck elephant spoor.
Every tooth in his head told the tale. Not only spoor, but the spoor of a
vast herd cutting right across the line of march.

Berselius came forward to examine, and Adams came with him.

The dry ground and wire grass was not the best medium for taking the track
of the beasts, but to the experienced eyes of Berselius and the Zappo Zap
everything was clear. A herd of elephant had passed not long ago, and they
were undisturbed and unsuspicious. When elephants are suspicious they
march in lines, single file, one stepping in the tracks of another. This
herd was spread wide and going easy of mind, but at what pace it would be
impossible to say.

The long boat-shaped back feet of the bulls leave a print unmistakable in
the rainy season when the ground is soft, but still discernible to the
trained eye in the dry season. Felix declared that there were at least
twenty bulls in the herd, and some of huge size.

"How long is it since they passed here?" asked Berselius.

Felix held up the fingers of one hand. From certain indications he came to
the conclusion they had passed late in the night, three hours or so before
daybreak. They numbered forty or fifty, leaving aside the calves that
might be with them. He delivered these opinions, speaking in the native,
and Berselius instantly gave the order, "Left wheel!" to the crowd of
porters; and at the word the long column t