We Unsaddled, And Ordered Breakfast To Be Ready For Our Return Beneath
One Of The Most Shady Trees; Having Loaded, We Started Off Upon The
Tracks.
As I had expected, they led to a thick thorny jungle, and slowly
and cautiously we followed the leading tracker.
The jungle became worse
and worse as we advanced, and had it not been for the path which the
elephants had formed, we could not have moved an inch. The leaves of the
bushes were wet with dew, and we were obliged to cover up all the
gun-locks to prevent any of them missing fire. We crept for about a
quarter of a mile upon this track, when the sudden snapping of a branch
a hundred paces in advance plainly showed that we were up with the game.
This is the exciting moment in elephant-shooting, and every breath is
held for a second intimation of the exact position of the herd. A deep,
guttural sound, like the rolling of very distant thunder, is heard,
accompanied by the rustling and cracking of the branches as they rub
their tough sides against the trees. Our advance had been so stealthy
that they were perfectly undisturbed. Silently and carefully we crept
up, and in a few minutes I distinguished two immense heads exactly
facing us at about ten paces distant. Three more indistinct forms loomed
in the thick bushes just behind the leaders.
A quiet whisper to Wortley to take a cool shot at the left-hand
elephant, in the exact centre of the forehead, and down went the two
leaders!
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