I'll risk
it, and have a slap at them. But how?' I could not advance across the
open, for they would see me; clearly the only thing to do was to creep
round in the shadow of the bush and try to come upon them so. So I
started. Seven or eight minutes of careful stalking brought me to the
mouth of the path down which the third elephant had walked. The other
two were now about fifty yards from me, and the nature of the wall of
bush was such that I could not see how to get nearer to them without
being discovered. I hesitated, and peeped down the path which the
elephant had followed. About five yards in, it took a turn round a
shrub. I thought that I would just have a look behind it, and advanced,
expecting that I should be able to catch a sight of the elephant's tail.
As it happened, however, I met his trunk coming round the corner. It is
very disconcerting to see an elephant's trunk when you expect to see his
tail, and for a moment I stood paralyzed almost under the vast brute's
head, for he was not five yards from me. He too halted, threw up his
trunk and trumpeted preparatory to a charge. I was in for it now, for
I could not escape either to the right or left, on account of the bush,
and I did not dare turn my back. So I did the only thing that I could
do--raised the rifle and fired at the black mass of his chest. It was
too dark for me to pick a shot; I could only brown him, as it were.
"The shot rung out like thunder on the quiet air, and the elephant
answered it with a scream, then dropped his trunk and stood for a second
or two as still as though he had been cut in stone.
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