not
been for those deadly little rifle balls we carried in our guns.

Nowell had almost got up to the monster, who, however, still went on.
What was my surprise to see Nowell suddenly stop, and lifting his rifle,
give him a bow chaser. He must have expected to cripple him, and thus
to be better able to give him a shot in a vital part. The elephant in a
moment halted, Nowell being almost close upon him. Round the monster
turned with a terrific shriek of pain and fury. Nowell sprang back only
just in time to get out of the way of his trunk. The elephant for a
moment stood facing us, and blocking up the path in front. We had the
narrow pathway he had formed through the jungle alone to retreat by.
Nowell had only one barrel loaded, and was not ten paces from the huge
brute. Still, he stood calm as a statue. I could not help expecting to
see him crushed the next instant beneath the elephant's feet, and
believed that I and those behind me would share his fate directly after.
In a clear grass country, with some trees to get behind, they might
have hoped to escape, as a man can run as fast as an elephant, and keep
it up longer; but in the tangled brake through which we had passed they
would not have the remotest chance of it. If Nowell fell, I believed
that I should fall also. The suspense lasted but a short time. Raising
his trunk, and trumpeting with rage, on came the elephant. Nowell still
stood steady as a rock, showing the firmest nerve; the elephant was
within six paces of him. I stepped forward with my rifle levelled and
my eye on the elephant's forehead. Nowell fired. Through the smoke
which hung thickly around I saw the monster's head appearing with
terrible distinctness. I heard Nowell's voice. Whether or not the
elephant was crushing him I could not tell. I fired my first barrel. I
was about to fire the other, when the huge head sank down to the ground,
and from the cloud of smoke Nowell appeared standing within two feet of
the monster's trunk.

"Bravo! capitally done, Marsden!" he exclaimed in a clear voice. "Your
shot is not far off mine, that I'll be bound."

The elephant lay dead before us. He was right; his bullet had taken
effect in the elephant's forehead, and mine was two inches below it.
Which had killed him I do not know. Probably either would have proved
mortal. Certainly he dropped the moment he got mine. We had done some
good; we had commenced the destruction of the marauding he