The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-08-15
author Of "She," "King Solomon's Mines" ETC.

that what between WEAKNESS and dis
gust must have dropped into gentle
doZe.
Presently awoke with start.
Gobo, who was perched close to me,
but as far off as the beam would allow
for neither white man nor black likes
the aroma which each vows is the pc
culiar and disagreeable property of the
other--was.f family, very family, click
ing his forefinger against. his thumb.
| knew by this signal-a very favor1te
one among native hunters and gun
bearers-that he must have seen or
heard something.
I looked at his face, and saw that he
was staring eXcitedly toward the dim
edge of the bush beyond the deep green
line of mealies.
I stared, too, and listened.
Presently I heard soft, large sound,
as though a giant were gently stretch
ing out his hands and pressing back
the ears of standing corn.
Then came pause, and then out into
the open majestically stalked the larg-
est elephant I ever saw or ever shall
see
Heavens! what a monster he wsE!
and how the moonlight cleaned upon
his one splendid tuSk-for the other
was missing-as he stood among the
mealies, gently moving his enormous
ears to and fro, and testing the wind
with his trunk
While I was still marveling at his
grth. and ,speculating upon the weight
of that huge tusl, which I swore
should be my tusk before very long, out
stepped q second bull and stood beside
him.
He was not quite so tall, but he
seemed to me to be almost thicker set
than the first, and even in that light
/ could see that both his tusks were
perfect.
Another pause, and the third
emerged.
He was shorter than either of the
others, but higher in the shoulder than
No. 2, and when I tell you that, as I
afterward learned from actual meas
urement. the smallest of these three
mighty bulls measured twelve feet one
and q half inches at the shoulder, it
will give you some idea of their size.
The three formed into line, and stood
still for a minute, the one-tusked bull
gently caressing the elephant on the
left with his trunk.
Then they began to feed, walking
forward and slightly to the right as
they gathered great punches of the
sweet mealies and thrust them into
their mouths.
All this time they were more than
hundred and twenty yards away from
me (this l knew because I had paced
the distances from the tree to various
points)-much too far to allow of my
attempting a shot at them in that un-
certain light
They fed in a semicircle, gradually
drawing round the hut, near my tree,
in which the corn was stored and the
old woman slept.
This went on for between an hour
and an hour and half, till what be-
tween excitement and hope that MAX
eth the heart sick got so weary that
l was actually contemplating a descent
from the tree and a moonlight stalk.
Such an act in ground so open would
have been that of stark staring luna
tic, and that should even have been
contemplating it will show you the
condition of my mind.
But everything comes to him who
knows how to wait, and sometimes,
too, to him who doesn't, and so at last
those elephants, or rather one of them,
came to me.
After they had fed their fill, which
was very large one, the noble three
stood once more in line some seventy
yards to the left of the hut and in the
edge of the cultivated lands, or in all
about eighty-five yards from where
was perched.
Then at last the one with q single
tusk made peculiar rattling noise in
his trunk. just as though he were blow
Ing his nose, and without more ado
began to walk deliberately toward the
hut where the old woman slept.
/ got my rife ready, and glanced up
at the moon, only to discover that
new complication was looming in the
immediate future.
l have said that q wind rose with
the moon.
Well, the wind brought rain-clouds
along it's track.
Several light ones had already for n
little while 'lessened the light, though
without Obscuring it, and now two
more were coming rapidly up, both of
them very black and dense.
The first cloud was small and long,
and the one behind big and broad.
l remember noticing that the pair of
them bore most comical resemblance
to dray drawn by very long, raw
boned horse.
AS luck would have it, just rs the
| elephant got within twenty-five yards
or so of Inc. the head of the horse-cloud
| foated over the face Of the moon, ren.
dering it impossible for me to fire.
In the faint twilight which remained.
however, l could just make out the
gray mass of the great brute still ad-
| vancing toward the hut.
Then the light went out altogether,
and 1 had to trust to my ears.
heard him fumbling with his trunk,
apparently at the roof of the hut.