I unslung my elephant gun from my shoulders and waited, calling to the men below to come up with all possible speed.

The brutes streamed on down the gloomy gulf towards me, barking, grunting, and showing their huge teeth.

I waited till they were within fifteen yards.
Then I fired the elephant gun, which was loaded with slugs, right into the thick of them.

In that narrow place the report echoed like a cannon shot, but its sound was quickly swallowed in the volley of piercing human-sounding groans and screams that followed.

The charge of heavy slugs had ploughed through the host of baboons, of which at least a dozen lay dead or dying in the passage.