It searched about as though to find a convenient resting-place, and when this was discovered, stood over it, swaying to and fro for a full minute.

Then it lifted its trunk and trumpeted shrilly thrice, singing its swan-song, after which it sank slowly to its knees, its trunk outstretched and the points of its worn tusks resting on the ground.

Evidently it was dead.
I let my eyes travel on, and behold! about fifty yards beyond the dead bull was a mound of hard rock.

I watched it with gasping expectation and--yes, on the top of the mound something slowly materialized.
Although I knew what it must be well enough, for a while I could not see quite clearly because there were certain little clouds about and one of them had floated over the face of the moon.

It passed, and before me, perhaps a hundred and forty paces away, outlined clearly against the sky, I perceived the devilish elephant of my vision.
Oh! what a brute was that! In bulk and height it appeared to be half as big again as any of its tribe which I had known in all my life's experience.