THE BULL ELEPHANT
"LISTEN, Logula," said the Colonel. "This is my answer. At the
setting of the sun we will be at your kraal. If there are twenty of
your men whose hearts are not filled with water, let them be ready
to drive the bull elephant and the cow elephants up to the iron
tubes that smoke of the mighty hunters. I have spoken."
The deputation made obeisance and withdrew, obviously impressed by
the determination and confidence of the white man to rid the
district of these formidable beasts.
"May we go too, sir?" asked Colin eagerly.
Colonel Narfield hesitated.
"Yes," he replied, after deliberation; "but only on certain
conditions. This is a very risky business, and you are quite
inexperienced at this sort of game. I know you've both plenty of
pluck, but that isn't everything. An African elephant has a brute of
a temper. His Indian cousin is a lamb compared with him, and it
requires a tremendous amount of nerve to aim accurately at a
ponderous beast charging on you at full tilt. Usually a man has an
almost irresistible tendency to cut and run for it; in which case,
unless there is ample cover of a very solid nature, he is quickly
overtaken and trampled underfoot. Isn't that so, Van der Wyck?"
"Ja," agreed the Afrikander solemnly; "but there, Colonel Narfield,
I have an advantage. Although I am active in many ways, I cannot
run. Therefore I must stand my ground. There is one good thing. It
is no longer necessary to have a heavy elephant-gun. Mine, I
remember, served me badly once. It missed fire, and a bull elephant
was but thirty paces off. Fortunately, there was a strong tree
handy; but even then the brute nearly uprooted it, and it was all I
could do to hold on to a big branch without being shaken off."
"How did you escape?" asked Tiny.
"I remained where I was for four long hours," replied Van der Wyck.
"Then three of my companions came to look for me. One of them broke
the elephant's foreleg with a bullet in the knee. It took three more
shots with a heavy elephant-gun to finish the brute."
"That was before explosive bullets came into use, I take it?"
inquired Colonel Narfield.
"Yes," answered the old man, "long before; and a man could not
depend upon the ammunition as he does nowadays. But, even then, it
is a risky business for inexperienced men, this elephant-hunting."
"You hear that, boys?" asked Colonel Narfield. "You can come with us
on conditions--that you keep at least a hundred paces behind Van der
Wyck and me when we're following the spoor, and leave the shooting
to us."
Colin and Desmond accepted the terms, although inwardly they jibbed,
considering it hard lines to have to be content to remain passive
spectators in the killing of a bull elephant. It was a case of half
a loaf being better than no bread.
For the next couple of hours Colonel Narfield was engaged in
overhauling his rifles and ammunition. The rifles were of .303 bore,
firing an explosive bullet with a hard steel point. One of the
rifles he lent to Van der Wyck, whose own gun was of a Mauser
pattern and unable to take the explosive ammunition.
Colin and Tiny also took their sporting rifles, with bullets of an
expanding type.
Accompanying the party were the three Haussas and a Cape Kaffir,
told off to act as bearer to Van der Wyck. All were mounted on
small, wiry ponies, although the actual hunt was to be performed on
foot.
With several minutes to the good, Colonel Narfield's party arrived
at Sibenga's Kraal, for although the chief was dead the village
still went by the same name until Logula had fully established his
claim to the chieftainship.
There was no lack of evidence of the destructive visits of the three
elephants. Acres of maize and millet had been trampled down; the
palisade surrounding the village had been uprooted in several
places, leaving gaps ten or twelve yards in length; while in two
instances the huts had been levelled to the ground.
Most of the inhabitants, including all the women and children, had
fled for safety to the summit of a lofty crag about two miles away,
but Logula had carried out Colonel Narfield's instructions and had
gathered together twenty young warriors.
Of these, ten were selected to act as torch-bearers, the remainder
having to be in attendance with their spears in case they were
attacked. The natives were all excited, their fears being to a great
extent banished when they found that the Great One and his
companions had arrived with their death-dealing rifles.
Leaving the horses at the village, the Colonel's party set out. Van
der Wyck and Colonel Narfield led, followed by Colin and Tiny and
the inseparable Tenpenny Nail and Blue Fly, while the natives
flocked in the rear.
There was no difficulty in following the spoor. The ground was
somewhat marshy, and in places the massive feet of the elephants had
sunk inches deep in the soft soil.
One thing was evident. The animals had wandered into a sort of
natural _cul de sac_ between two ridges of precipitous rock, the
bottle-neck opening into a wide track of reed-covered ground nearly
five miles in length and averaging three in breadth.
At the entrance to this trap some of the natives were told to build
a barrier of fire and to take good care to keep it well alight.
Before the march was resumed, the hunters had the satisfaction of
seeing a wall of flame blazing fiercely and completely sealing the
only exit possible for the huge, ferocious beasts.
"You are sure that there is no way out at the other end?" inquired
Van der Wyck.
"The natives say not," replied Colonel Narfield. "Of course, I know
that telling lies is, with them, as easy as winking when it serves
their purpose. But we're doing them a good turn, so it's to their
advantage to speak the truth."
It wanted a good three hours to the setting of the moon, but there
was sufficient light to follow the spoor--the three-toed and
four-toed prints in the ground, for, unlike the Indian
elephant, the African one has but three toes on his hind feet.
Presently, after the hunters had advanced about a mile, the almost
indescribable trumpeting of a bull elephant disturbed the silence of
the tropical night.
"Now, you fellows," exclaimed Colonel Narfield, addressing Colin and
Tiny, "see that tree? You'll get a comprehensive view of the show
from the lowermost branch. Up you go, and don't forget the
safety-catches of your rifles. The brute's in that scrub, and I'm
sending the beaters to drive him this way."
If the truth be told, the lads were not sorry to take to the tree.
The stupendous trumpeting rather "gave them the breeze," and the
knowledge that they were in a place of security and not confronted
by the possibility of facing a huge elephant in the open was
decidedly comforting.
Waving flaming torches, seven or eight natives worked round to the
back of the patch of long grass surrounding a hollow. In the centre
of the hollow was a shallow pool, in which the elephant was
disporting himself, and consequently his enormous bulk was invisible
from the spot where the Colonel and Van der Wyck had taken their
stand.
Suddenly the trumpeting ceased. The elephant had scented danger.
{Illustration: "HIS FOOT CAUGHT IN A TRAILING TENDRIL AND HE CRASHED
HEAVILY"
[_p_. 174}
Until the brute made up his mind what course to pursue he remained
silent, and the silence was almost as disquieting to the
inexperienced youths as had been the terrific trumpeting.
In about a quarter of an hour a dense smoke rose sullenly in the
moonlit air. The natives were firing the grass in order to smoke the
elephant from his cover. Then arose the yells and shouts of the
beaters as they advanced through the scrub, waving their torches and
gesticulating like demons.
Above the uproar rose the loud bellowing of the now infuriated
animal. Nearer and nearer came the sound, until above the waving
grass appeared a dark grey mountain of flesh--one of the biggest
bull elephants that Colonel Narfield had ever seen.
Clear of the scrub, the huge beast paused irresolutely. Then he
caught sight of the Colonel standing in the open with his rifle held
at the ready. It was a mute challenge, and the elephant promptly
picked up the gage.
Bellowing furiously and waving his trunk in the air, the ponderous
animal charged. To the watchers in the tree it seemed incredible
that such a heavily-built brute could move at such a pace as it did.
They had previously imagined an elephant to be a slow-moving beast,
with an average speed of five miles an hour. This one was charging
at a pace equal at least to that of a trotting horse.
Colonel Narfield waited until the elephant was sixty yards away.
Then slowly and deliberately raising his rifle to his shoulder, he
pressed the trigger.
An involuntary cry burst from Colin's lips as his quick ear caught
the sound of a faint click. The cartridge was a "dud"--a defective
one.
In a trice the Colonel ejected the cartridge and replaced it with
another. The elephant was now but thirty yards away. Again the
striker clicked ineffectively.
Realising that his one chance lay in seeking flight--for there was
not time to place a third cartridge into the breech and
fire--Colonel Narfield threw aside the now useless weapon and took
to his heels. Before he had covered half a dozen yards his foot
caught in a trailing tendril, and he crashed heavily on the ground.