Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1917-12-06
THE Place Where the Elephants DE-"
,cality of the place where the elephants

die.
That day I found the enemy in re-
treat and helioed the news back TO the
main force. Shortly afterwards L re-
, ceiNed an order to cooperate with an
other small column mat was making a
morning before proceeding on a recon-
holterins patrol, | was porting over my
Dig sweeping movement to the north
east with a view to "scupperinS' the
German r~ear-guard. SO | pushed my
company rapidly forwards and soon
gained the crest IF the hills marked
"Musutu' on the map. Native scouts
found the spoor OF the German rear
guard going downwards from this
range into an enormously deep valley
thanked on the northern side by anoth-
maps when | noticed that the high ridge
before us was termed the Musutu and
that beyond that range of hills was a
second ridge marked as the Mutinsa
imounlalns. In the hurly-burly of war
fare Strayne and his dying message had
been out of my mind for awhile, but
when L saw these words on the map I
remembered that they were the names
the Germans from their line of retreat,
but that nothing whatever was to be
seen OF the rear gUard-WaS | in touch
with them? l had scarcely sent off "a
reply when a fierce rattle of muskerty
broke out from the depths below.
WHO on earth can be scrapping
Soh' ~ 4 my
senior sub.
Can't make it out at all, skipper"
quoth he. What are the ride now,
sir?'
Well, I'm going to halt here and
investigator said l.. Good God, what's
that?"
From the abysmal depths below US
broke out a terrifying trumpeting roar
as though a million massive fog horns
We're blowing concerted blasts. Then
the rattle of musletry broke out afresh.
and this time it was accentuated by
the rat-tat-tat-tat of MaXims. We
listened in amazement. AS the African
sun sank-a globe of crimson splendor
lin the west. the firing died away,
but the terrible truinpeting noise in
creased in it's furious intensity. Pres
emily q deep and awe inspiring silence
fell upon this pit of t%errors, but now
and then we could hear a faint and
scarcely audible moan coming to us
from the depths. The night came rush
ing over us and found FoXgrove and |
stlll standing on the edge of the chasm.
!, There's something uncanny about
this, ~FoNgrove," said l presently.
There may be something in Strayne's
story after ALL"
What that, skipper" asked Fox
grove.
Place Of Elephant Folk.
oh! Nothing much" l replied. but
l think you and I'll go down and in
Vestigate when the moon gets up"
The moon rose full and mellow a
among the native scouts to accompany
FoXgrove and myself on our adven-
ture. These natives were extraordinary
lily plucky fellows. Time after time
they had led us right On to an enemy
p1quet or secuted & hostile position in
broad daylight. But they absolutely
refused to go down into the hollow. 1T
is the place OF the 'N'Jofu. Bwana,'
remarked their leader" and no man
who goes there will live. We will die
fighting for you, master, whenever you
wish. But we will not disturb the
elephant folk"
had learned to respect native tradi-
tons and customs, and so FoXgrave
and l started on our descent alone. As
we clambered down into the gorge
Strayne's words kept ringing through
my ears, n l felt that strange as his
tale had seemed we were nevertheless
on the brink of it's reality. We must
ave climbed down quite 5000 feet, I
SHOULD think, when we felt our feet
touch a soft spongy carpet of moss.
we had reached the bottom.
In the uncertain light we could see
an open glade running through a forest
of very tall trees. The glade was full
OF what at first appeared to be masses
of cleaning white boulders. But az we
advanced carefully along we made the
startling discovery that these boulders
We're In reality pile upon pile of gigan-
tic bones and tusks Of ivory of all ages
and slzes-pure white and rotten yell
low, small and large.
Stranger still was it to find corpses Of
Germans. white and Askari. rifles and
equipment lying huddled together in
this mammoth graveyard. Most of
these corpses were mutilated beyond
recognition. Some Of the bodies were
stamped right into the soft messy
ground and undertook. Others had
heads or limbs torn from their trunks,
and others appeared to have been
smashed to pulp on the bones of the
dead animals. We found a machine
gun crushed Hat like a piece Of sheet
iron. Here and there too were dark
mammoth shapes-the dead heroes of
the elephant folk who had fallen in de-
lense OF their sanctuary that afternoon.
1 feit my flesh creep as I surveyed
that weird n terrible scene. In the
moonligh the forms Of the dead men
and m looked spectral and ghost
~. This was he place Strayne had
spoken of.
"A quarter of a million in ivory" I
could well believe him.
Neither Of us spoke a word. There
seemed to be something about that
scene. something non-human and un-
believable and terrible that absolutely
silenced speech. We just gazed on it
In awed establishment. But our survey
was not Suddenly a noise like
the rush Of many waters broke the sill
ence Of the place Of death. At first it
seemed a long way off. But we could
hear 1t rushing along like the noise of
q forest fire. And-like a forest fire It
brought an Immense sound of falling
tfrQRa IN Ito train