Our Gun-Bearers Were Crouched Around Us; Their Dark
Skins Matching With The Ground On Which They Squatted, They Looked Like
So Many Stumps Of Trees.
It was nearly ten o'clock, and my eyes ached
with watching; several times I found myself nodding as sleep took me by
surprise; so, leaving a man to look out, we sat quietly down and
discussed a cold fowl that we had brought with us.
We had just finished a pint bottle of cherry brandy when I felt a gentle
touch upon my shoulder, and our look-out man whispered in my ear the
magic word 'alia' (elephant), at the same time pointing in the direction
of the tank. The guns were all wrapped up in a blanket to keep them from
the dew, so telling W. to uncover them and to distribute them to the
respective gun-bearers without noise, I crept out and stole unperceived
along the margin of the tank to discover the number and position of the
elephants. So deceitful was the moonlight, being interrupted by the dark
shadows of the jungle, that I was within ten paces of the nearest
elephant before I distinguished her. I counted three--one large and two
others about six feet high. Being satisfied with my information, and
having ascertained that no others were in the jungle, I returned to my
companions; they were all ready, and we crept forward. We were within
ten paces of the large elephant, when a branch of hooked thorn caught W.
by the clothes; the noise that he made in extricating himself
immediately attracted the attention of the elephant, and she turned
quickly round, receiving at the same moment an ineffectual shot from W.;
B. at the same time fired without effect at one of the small elephants.
The mother, hearing a roar from the small elephant that B. had wounded,
immediately rushed up to it, and they stood side by side in the water
about fifteen yards from the bank.
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