Page 132 - Adventure Magazine, 1921, July 18th

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Aut'Ji.or of "Union Is Strength,' "Chiva/,ry of the Wild," etc.·
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COUGHI NG., grunting roar ing talons, which gave him time to clear
that brought the silence of a himself with a beautiful back-leap while. the
thousand years tumbling down elephant blundered, lunging madly, past
irito pieces; a noise of tearing him, and-there was the calf, open to the
silk as the lor1g dry grass swished apart; a lion's attack!
a:si.1 + tawny yellow, and-the whirlwind Lion and elephant pivoted toward the
was upon him. calf in the same instant, the lion foremost.
The baby elephant, who had been stand- The elephant, sitting down as she slid,
ing all alone and perfectly still, with his grabbed the _ lion with her trunk by one
back to the painted glass of the forest pool hind leg, as a last chance. The lion doubled
where the feathery bamboos bent over and upon himself and, quick almost as a snake,
the bright-green mamba snake hung like a sank his diabolical yellowfangs de-ep into
·festoon from the rotting, moss-draped tree, her trunk . The el_ephant backed away
took a step 'backward. Also he squealed. with a scream, for an instant leaving her
And as he did so he fell into the scum- t,lirice-precious babe exposed again, and--
choked stagna tion that d duty as the pool Ah, but no one had seen.__him coming-
behind him. Tembo the mighty one. That was the pity
·It had all happened -in a wink, and the of it. He was worth paying dollars to watch
lion, going like the wind, arrived upon the then. No one had beheld the trees rock as
spot where the baby elephant's tracks in a- cyclone, the big branches and even
showed in the mud, one-twenty-fifth of a trunks topple and come down bodily,__ the
second after the baby elephant's funny immense creepers rent apart like string, the
round feet had literally fallen out of bushes flattened ou,t by-Tembo, enormous,
same. • impehding, and growing; rocking and roll-
And-a scream, scream upon scream, ing as. he came like a battle-ship under
sawed through the stifling heat almost on forced draft in a heavy sea, screaming a
top of the pair of them in the same instant. trumpet-blast that could be heard for miles,
The lion ripped out a growl that made you tearing down upon the fight with head up
shiver and spun back upon himself, only and little eyes turned red. ·
just in time to face the towering, rockiµg, Twelve feet from ground to head of im-
crashing tornado that arrived. It was the p1acable, revengeful power; nearly six tons
mother of thai ,,lephant calf, who appeared, of annihilating, crushing weight; ten feet
as elephant~ nave an uncanny trick of do- from tip to tip of swung-out, sail-like ears;
ing, apparently from nowhere. nine feet and three hundred pounds' weight
'I;'he rest was simply abominable confu- of gli tening, gleaming, battering -ram
sion and chaos. tusks; the whole"'"-thc whole furious, intol-
It was, however, pure chance that al- erant, ramping, raging bulk, I say, tear-
lowed the lion to catch his opponent a ing through the frizzling sunshine at nearly
crack upon the chest with his awful rend- twenty miles an hour. That was Tembo,
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