ction of
the cave; this was plainly shown by a distant blaze of light from
the night-fires, which were already lit. We were walking slowly along
parallel to the jungle, into which the elephants had retreated, when my
man Wallace, who is a capital gun-bearer, halloed out, 'Here comes an
elephant!' and in the dim twilight I could see an elephant bowling at a
great pace towards us, but close to the jungle. He was forty yards from
me, but my brother fired at him and without effect. I took a quick shot
with a double-barrelled rifle, and he dropped immediately. Hearing him
roar as he lay in the high lemon grass by the edge of the jungle, I
ran down the gentle slope to the spot, followed by my trusty gun-bearer
Wallace, as I knew the elephant was only stunned and would soon recover.
Upon arriving within a few feet of the spot, pushing my way with
difficulty through the tangled lemon grass, I could not see where he
lay, as daylight had now vanished. I was vainly looking about, when I
suddenly heard a rush in the grass close to me, and I saw the head and
cocked ears of the elephant within six feet, as he came at me. I had
just time to fire my remaining barrel, and down he dropped to the shot!
I jumped back a few paces to assure myself of the result, as the smoke
hanging in the high grass, added to the darkness, completely blinded me.
Wallace pushed the spare rifle into my hand, and to my astonishment I
saw the head and cocked ears again coming at me! It was so dark that I
could not take an aim, but I floored him once more by a front shot, and
again I jumped back through the tangled grass, just in time to avoid
him, as he, for the third time, recovered himself and charged. He was
not five paces from me; I took a steady shot at him with my last barrel,
and I immediately bolted as hard as I could run. This shot once
more floored him, but he must have borne a charmed life, as he again
recovered his legs, and to my great satisfaction he turned into the
jungle and retreated. This all happened in a few seconds; had it been
daylight I could of course have killed him, but as it happened I could
not even distinguish the sights at the end of my rifle. In a few
minutes afterwards, it became pitch dark, and we could only steer for
the cave by the light of the fire, which was nearly two miles distant.

The next day, we found a herd of eight elephants in very favourable
ground, and succeeded in killing seven; but this was the last herd in
the