The herd moved farther and farther into the grasslands, grey bodies disappeared behind the trees and only the deafening noise and the clouds of dust that rose high into the air indicated the hunting ground.
The astounded friends, amazed at the bravery and skill of the hunters in avoiding the maddened monsters who charged down on them, and continuing their dangerous business no matter what happened, gazed in silence at the empty land with its crushed bushes and broken trees. Kidogo’s face wore a worried frown as he listened to what was going on, and he said softly:
“Something’s wrong. The hunt isn’t going the way it should!”
“How do you know that?” asked the astonished Cavius.
“They brought us here because they expected the herd to move to the east. The herd has moved off to the right, I suppose that must be bad.”
“Let’s go over there, back along the ledge, the way we came,” suggested Pandion.
Kidogo pondered over the suggestion for a moment and then agreed. In the bustle of the hunt their coming could not make any difference.
Bending low and keeping concealed behind stones and grass, the three friends moved a distance of a thousand cubits back in the direction from which they had come until they were again opposite the open plain.
They could see the gully in the rocks where the hunters had driven more than a dozen young elephants. The hunters were darting about amongst the trees, skilfully dropping nooses over the animals and fastening them to the tree-trunks.
A line of warriors armed with broad spears closed the entrance to the gully. The noise and shouting was now at its height some two thousand cubits away; apparently the greater part of the herd was over there.
Suddenly the loud trumpeting of elephants came from in front and from the left. Kidogo shuddered. “The elephants are attacking,” he whispered. A man let out a long moan, the angry cries of another sounded like words of command.
On the far side of the open space in front of them, where two wide-spreading trees cast a huge patch of shadow, the friends could see some movement. A moment later a huge elephant appeared from there with his ears outspread and his trunk stretched out in front of him like a log. He was followed by two other similar giants. Pandion recognized in them the monsters who had led the herd. The fourth, accompanied by several other elephants, was a little distance behind. From the bushes on the right hunters ran out to cut off the elephants. They ran between them and as they ran they threw spears at the elephant that had last appeared. The latter trumpeted furiously and turned on the men who were running as fast as their legs could carry them towards the swamp. The other elephants followed him. The three leaders paid no attention to the hunters’ scheme to separate them from their fellows, and continued their race towards the valley between the rocks, most probably attracted by the cries of the young.
“That’s bad, that’s bad, the leaders have turned in the other direction,” whispered Kidogo excitedly, squeezing Pandion’s arm till it hurt.
“Look… Look, there’s bravery for you,” shouted Cavius, forgetting himself.
The hunters that barred the entrance to the valley stood firm and made no attempt to conceal themselves from the infuriated monsters. As they moved forward, strung out in a long chain, the low, burned-out grass offered them no cover.
The leading elephant rushed straight at the middle of the line of hunters. Two men stood stock-still while their neighbours on either side sprang forward towards the approaching giant. The elephant slackened his pace, raised his trunk high into the air, trumpeted maliciously and set out to trample the hunters underfoot. No more than ten cubits separated the brave men from the elephant when they leapt aside like lightning. At that same moment two men rose out of the grass beside each of the elephant’s hind-legs; two of them thrust their broad spears into the animal’s belly and the other two leaned back to strike at the elephant’s legs.
A high-pitched, whistling note escaped the leader’s raised trunk. Lowering it the elephant turned his head towards the nearest man on the right. The hunter could not escape him or was too slow in his movements.
Blood spurted from his body and the three friends could see from their vantage point the bare bones of his side and shoulder. The wounded man fell to the ground without a sound, but the elephant also collapsed heavily on to its hind-quarters and began slowly crawling away sideways. The hunters that had stopped the leading elephant then joined their comrades who were engaging the other two. These were either cleverer or had previous experience of man; they dashed from side to side, giving the hunters no opportunity to creep up behind them, and crushed three men underfoot.
The clouds of dust that hung over the scene of the hunt turned red in the rays of the setting sun. The elephants looked like huge black towers at the base of which fearless men were darting to and fro. They leaped into the air to escape the long tusks, met the animals’ trunks with spears thrust shalt downwards into the ground and with loud shouts ran behind the elephants, attracting attention away from other hunters who would otherwise have been trampled to death.
The frenzied animals kept up their incessant trumpeting. When they turned their heads towards the rocks on which the three friends were sitting, they seemed extraordinarily tall, their widespread ears waved high above the hunters. Seen from the side the elephants, their heads lowered, looked smaller, their tusks almost raked the ground, ready to gore their enemies. Pandion, Cavius and Kidogo realized that they were looking — at only part of the battle; it was going on far away beyond the trees where the herd was concentrated, and away to the left in the swamp where the hunters had drawn off the fourth leader and the elephants that had come with him. The three friends had no idea what was going on there, but they had no time to think about it, for the bloody struggle being enacted before their eyes demanded all their attention.
From behind the trees came the rumble of approaching tom-toms as several dozen hunters came to the aid of their comrades. The leaders of the elephant herd halted in indecision, the men shouted and waved their spears, and the elephants retreated. They ran to the third, wounded leader, stood one on either side of him, pushed their tusks under his heavy body and lifted him on to his feet. Squeezing him between their huge bodies, they dragged him behind the trees, dropped him, picked him up again and made off. Several of the hunters started out to follow up the elephants, but they were stopped by the chief hunter.
“He won’t get away… they’ll soon leave him… you’ll infuriate them again…” Kidogo translated his words.