. While I was engaged in securing him, the gun-bearers
came up, and at this moment I observed, at the foot of the hill, another
elephant, not quite full grown, who was retreating through the high
grass towards the jungle. There were no guns charged except one of my
No. 10 rifles, which some one had reloaded; taking this, I left the
little 'Ponchy' with V. and the gun-bearers, and running down the side
of the hill, I came up with the elephant just as he was entering the
jungle, and getting the earshot, I killed him.

We had bagged nine elephants, and only one had escaped from the herd;
this was the female who had forsaken her young one.

Wallace now came up and cut off the tails of those that I had killed.
I had one barrel still loaded, and I was pushing my way through the
tangled grass towards the spot where the five elephants lay together,
when I suddenly heard Wallace shriek out, 'Look out, sir! Look out!--an
elephant's coming!'

I turned round in a moment; and close past Wallace, from the very spot
where the last dead elephant lay, came the very essence and incarnation
of a 'rogue' elephant in full charge. His trunk was thrown high in the
air, his ears were cocked, his tail stood erect above his back as stiff
as a poker, and screaming exactly like the whistle of a railway engine,
he rushed upon me through the high grass with a velocity that was
perfectly wonderful. His eyes flashed as he came on, and he had singled
me out as his victim.

I have often been in dangerous positions, but I never felt so totally
devoid of hope as I did in this instance. The tangled grass rendered
retreat impossible. I had only one barrel loaded, and that was useless,
as the upraised trunk protected his forehead. I felt myself doomed; the
few thoughts that rush through men's minds in such hopeless positions,
flew through mine, and I resolved to wait for him till he was close upon
me, before I fired, hoping that he might lower his trunk and expose his
forehead.

He rushed along at the pace of a horse in full speed; in a few moments,
as the grass flew to the right and left before him, he was close upon
me, but still his trunk was raised and I would not fire. One second
more, and at this headlong pace he was within three feet of me; down
slashed his trunk with the rapidity of a whip-thong! and with a shrill
scream of fury he was upon me!

I fired at that instant; but in a twinkling of an eye I was flying
through the air like a ball from