I was with the little twin Manua at the time, when, stealing along under cover of the high grass, I got close to the batch and fired at the larges, which sent her round roaring.

The whole of them then, greatly alarmed, packed together and began sniffing the air with their uplifted trunks, till, ascertaining by the smell of the powder that their enemy was in front of them, they rolled up their trunks and came close to the spot where I was lying under a mound.

My scent then striking across them, they pulled up short, lifted their heads high, and looked down sideways on us.

This was a bad job.

I could not get a proper front shot at the boss of any of them, and if I had waited an instant we should both have been picked up or trodden to death; so I let fly at their temples, and instead of killing, sent the whole of them rushing away at a much faster pace than they came.