Harry, taking his rifle; "I'll do my best to stop the
brutes coming this way, at all events."

Charley and I waited on the lower branches, my brother being beneath me,
watching for the return of Aboh. At last we saw him coming along with
Charley's rifle in his hand. At the same instant Harry shouted out--

"Here come the elephants with their trunks turned up, but they are
walking leisurely along, as if they had forgotten all about us."

"Don't fire, then, unless they come close to the tree," answered
Charley, while he made signs to Aboh to hasten his steps, pointing as he
did so towards the lake. Aboh sprang forward, but the quick ears and
quick sight of the elephants had detected him, and sticking out their
trunks, they begun trumpeting and moving rapidly forward. I scarcely
thought it possible that Aboh could escape them. Just then we heard the
report of Harry's rifle over our heads. A shriek of rage escaped the
leading elephant, and he had, we concluded, been hit. At the same
moment Aboh stopped, and levelling his rifle, fired. The ball struck
the animal, which, however, still came on, although at a slower pace
than before, and Aboh, grasping the rifle, darted up the tree holding it
above his head, so that Charley could stoop down and seize it by the
barrel. Handing it to me, he was able to assist Aboh, who nimbly
scrambled up.

We all then retreated to our former resting-places, out of the reach of
the elephants' trunks. The whole herd came on, the leader bleeding but
still trumpeting furiously. We, however, had him in our power, and felt
pretty sure that his trumpetings would soon be over. My weapon was
still loaded, Charley asked me to let him have it, as he was in a better
position for firing than I was. I handed it to him, and as the
elephants came near he took aim at the leader, waiting until in his
circuit round the tree his head presented a fair mark. He fired, the
huge monster immediately sank down, and almost without a struggle was
dead. We could not resist joining Aboh in the loud shout of triumph he
raised as we saw our enemy destroyed. On the fall of their leader, the
other elephants became alarmed, and uttering a few trumpetings, more of
fear than anger, rushed off together into the forest, crushing down the
shrubs and young trees as they went, making a good pathway towards the
southward, which would have saved us much trouble to have followed had
we wished to go in that direction. W