Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-06
Samuel Scoville, Jr.

AcK in the bad old days when black
instead of white ruled South Africa
- bloodly, Cetowayo, that great Zulu king,
sent u of his best hunters to the Aldo
\ hush to bring back the heart Of q bull
elephant Just before dawn the IL slipped
snakily through the scrub and then spread cut
like pack Of hunting dogs. through the oln
kiIences of the jungle they giided axe HhoSVs'
The forest gave way to the bush proper, . green
sea of low trees, riddled with the trans 81 eae-
phant rhinoceros and water ounao.
At last, at signal from Milan, the leader,
the little band halted In the shade Of an old
fig tree wreathed in a mist OF gray moss ON
whose gnarled limbs orchids white ana CRIMSON
and gold gleened like jewels.
There is herd close at hand feel them,
whispered the old hunter Is they grouped
themselves about him. Let every man oe
ready, for they will charge on sight,
Again they moved like phantoms among the
low trees, in that silence which hunters only
ACQUIRE in a lifetime afleld. Even as he did
So out of the bushes burst a black-maned lion.
Instantly there sounded just behind him, from
a little glade fringed with brush, shrill. angry
trllmpeting and a black wave OF charging COW
elephants rushed from the thicket-for in an
elephant herd it is always the cows which
first charge an approaching enemy. The mat
ted mass of tough creepers snapped ike pack
thread before them, while the lion, hinging
aside all his dignity and, looking like a huge
yellow cat, ran Tor MS lie.
A charging lion for about 200 yards Is one
of the fastest of all animals, and within that
distance can run down horse or an antelope.
Only the cheetah, or hunting leopard, the
swiftest sprinter on earth, can equal him among
the cats Yet the dark bulks of the charging
COWS, crashing through the bush and moving
clunasily across the plain on their enormous feet
nearly two yards in circumference, drifted
toward the fugitive with such effortess speed
that he only just gained the refuge OF the
opposite thicket before they were upon him.
Ae some of the hunters, inexperienced In
elephant ways, started TO move toward the
herd, the old leader restrained them.
wait" he whispered. "Comes now the
chief"
Even he spoke, trumpet sounded from
the depths of the thicket where the herd had
been feeding Unlike the high-pitched voices
of the COWS, this call was booming note, deep,
heavy and subterranean. Then the close-sct
steelly stems of the lantana scrub burst apart,
and into the open strobe such q beast as even
NiJan in all Of his so years of hunting had
never seen before
Twelve feet high at his mighty shoulders, he
seemed to stand before them like some monster
from another world. His skin was a rough slate
color sparsely covered with tiny black brtStles,
and his enormous trunk, with its gripping
finger at the tip, writhed in the air like thick
black snake Each Of his tremendous front
feet had four toes, and on his left forefoot one
of the toes had grown so long that 1t showed
plainly beyond the rim Of his vast loot,
popularity which in after years gave him MS
name Of "Long-toe."
As the beast stood facing the returning cows,
old Milan, taking advantage OF every bush and
tree and patch of fern, crept up TO within a
few yards of where he stood. Then. cooking
his old-fashioned musket, he aimed carefully.
Milan pulled the trigger-but instead Of
report, there sounded only dull click as the
cartridge, one Of q damaged lot which ras-
cally trader had sold the tribe, failed to ex-
plode. At the sound the elephants Tapping
ears came forward Drawing back his sensitive
trunk as an African elephant always does
when about to charge, with an appalling below
Of rage the king Of the herd rushed straight
at the old hunter. As the monster reached
him, Milan plunged desperately into the thicket
ct the side of the trail. AT that point, however,
the path was fringed With the supple stems OF
the clcse-set lantana scrub: they threw him
hack as If he had dashed himself against e
steel wire fence, and IN another second his
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