opped at the only river for ten miles round; but I was nearly stopping
away all night, only I remembered you had such good fat eland for
supper, and so I returned."

"And what made you nearly stop away, Hans?"

"Few men like to walk about among bushes and krantzes when man-eating
lions are on the look-out, and the sun has set for two hours," replied
Hans.

"Was there nothing else that kept you?" inquired Bernhard. "You left us
all of a sudden."

"Yes, there was something else kept me away."

"And that was--"

"This," said Hans, as he pulled from his coat pocket a small brown lump
like India-rubber, from which two or three long wire-like bristles
protruded.

"You came on elephants!" exclaimed several of the Boers. "What luck!
The first we have seen. Were they bulls or cows?"

"I came on fresh elephant's spoor soon after I left you," said Hans. "I
dared not come back to call you, and feared to miss you; so I went on
alone, and saw the spoor of four large bull elephants. This spoor I
followed for some distance, and then found that the creatures had
entered the forest. But the place was good; there were large trees, and
but little underwood; so I could see far, and walk easily. I came upon
the elephants; they were together, and knew not I was near till I had
fired, and the big bull dropped dead."

"Where did you hit him, Hans?"

"Between the eye and the ear, and he fell to the shot."

"The others escaped, then, Hans," said Heinrich.

"Not before I had hit one with fine tusks behind the shoulder."

"Then he escaped?"

"No, he went for two miles, then separated from the others, and stood in
the thick bush. I becrouped (stalked him) and gave him my bullet
between the eye and the ear, and he fell."

"Where's his tail, Hans?" said one of the Boers.

Hans drew from his pocket a second small black bristly lump, and placed
it beside the first, saying, "There is the tail of the elephant in the
thick bush."

"What weight are the tusks, Hans?" said Bernhard.

"About sixty to eighty pounds each. They are old bulls with sound
teeth."

"And ivory is fetching five shillings a pound. A sixty pound business.
Oh, Hans, you are lucky! Are there more there, do you think? Was there
other spoor, or were these wanderers?"

"To-morrow," replied Hans, "we may come upon a large herd of bulls, for
before sundown I crossed fresh spoor of a herd of about twenty. They
were tracking south, so we shall not have far