nd Assevedo were
hurrying up, but were yet distant. They both fired, but the bullets
served but to enrage still further the infuriated animal, as it came on,
the blood dripping in large gouts from its reddened tusks. It was a
race between it and the soldier--a race won by the man, as, breathless,
and with only one barrel of his rifle loaded, he stood between the
senseless Isabel and the charging animal. On it came, right upon him;
if it passed it must tread down the fair girl's body. The thought gave
him nerve, it steadied his hand as he aimed right for the centre of the
forehead. The report rang out, the elephant halted suddenly, swaying
from side to side, and then fell with a heavy thud. A loud shout from
the two men advancing over the plain, and Hughes knew that Dona Isabel
was safe. Throwing aside his now useless rifle, he knelt by her side,
raising her on his arm, and leaning her head back against his knee; a
small red stream was flowing from her forehead, and she had fainted.

"My child--my Isabel!" moaned the old man, forgetting his pride in his
sorrow, as he threw himself by his daughter's side, panting and
breathless.

"It is nothing, she has fainted. I go for water!" exclaimed Assevedo,
as he hastened towards the river.

Slowly the blue veins beneath the clear olive skin began to beat again.
Once more the eyes opened and closed. Hughes was busy sponging away the
blood, which flowed rather freely, with a handkerchief. Dom Francisco
and Assevedo, kneeling by Isabel's side, were using the cool water of
the Shire river; and close beside them, its tusks red with blood, the
enormous bulk of the dead elephant; while, fifty paces away--a crushed
and unsightly mass--lay the pony.

Isabel opened her eyes, and seemed for a moment utterly astonished.
"Santa Maria!" she ejaculated, "where am I?"

Then suddenly the whole affair seemed to flash on her memory, and,
raising herself gently, she smiled.

"I was not frightened, only astonished," said the brave girl, as the red
blood mantled in her cheeks. "Where is the elephant?"

"There," answered her father; "and you may thank the Senhor Capitano
Inglesi that it lies there."

Isabel de Maxara turned--the dead animal with its gory tusks, and the
shapeless mass which had been a horse, met her gaze. For a moment her
face flushed, the red blood once more mantling richly under the clear
olive skin; the next she grew deadly pale. "I thank you, senhor," she
said