Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1908-08-20
MAIWA'S REVENGE
ALLAN 0UATERMAINS GREATEST ADVENTURE
By H. RIDER HAGGARD.
1HEN
Author of "She," "King Soomon's Mines Etc.

sleep.
Indeed, had it not been for the fact
that was beginning to find the log on
which l sat very hard, should have
grown quite sentimental over the beau
tiful sight.
But l will defy anybody to become
sentimental when seated in the damp
on very rough beam of wood half
way up tree.
So 7 merely made mental note that
It was a particularly lovely night, and
turned my attention to the prospect
of elephants.
But no elephants came. anu AFTER
waiting for another hour or so, think
that what between WEAKNESS ana dis'
gust must have dropped into gentle
doze
Presently awoke with start.
Gobo. who was perched close to me,
hut 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 family, very family, click
ing his forefnger against his thumb.
knew by this signal-a very favoiite
one among native hunters and gun
bearers-that he must have seen or
heard something.
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.
/ stared, too, and listened.
Presently heard soft, large sound.
as though 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 l ever saw or ever shall
see. $780,. ...-.-.
Heavens! what monster he was!
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 | was still marveling at his
girth, and specializing upon the weight
of that huge tusk, which | swOre
should be my tusk before very long, out
stepped a 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 ., and when I tell you that, as
afterward learned from actual meas
urement, the smallest Of these three
| mighty bulls measured twelve feet one
| and a half inches at the shoulder, 1t
will give you some idea Of their size.
The three formed into line and stood
| still for minute, the one-tusked bull
gently caressing the elephant oil 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 n
hundred and twenty yards away from
me this l knew because I had paced
| the distances from the tree to various
Doints)-much too far to allow OF my
attempting q shot at them in that un-
certain light.
| They fed in q semicirele. 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
I was actually contemplating 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 I should even To-" boon
contemplating 1t will SLOW y1u .hc
condition of my mind.
But everything comes 10 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 a 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 eigbty-five yards from where
was perched.
Then at last the one with single
tusk made peculiar rafting noise In
his trunk, just as though he We're blow
ing his nose, and without more ado
began to walk deliberately toward the
hut where the old woman slept.
got my rifle ready, and glanced up
! at the moon, only to discover that
new complication was looming in the
immediate future.
have said that wind rose with
the moon.
Well, the wind brought rain-clouds
|, along its track.
Several light ones had already for
little while lessened the light, though
without obscuring H. 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.
remember noticing that the pair OF
them bore a most comical resemblance
! to dray drawn by very long, raw
boned horse,