Page 134 - Adventure Magazine, 1921, July 18th

Big Tusks 129

fg THAT night when the moon had as a girl chews candy, but when you re-
{-@ climbed to her throne in the sky and member that each one of Tembo's teeth was
all the shadows stood clear-cut as a thirteen inches long, three and a half inches
tessellated floor-but some moved and dis- wide, and weighed about nine pounds, you
solved into nowhere-and all was as still, will not perhaps feel such surprize. ◄
except for the booming of an ostrich like a His tusks were another matter. Tembo
far-away war-drum, as it will be on the was mighty careful how he used them.
Last Day, Tembo and his consort joined There was one elephant in the herd who had
the elephant herd-their herd. not been careful and who had broken his
The herd was fifty and one strong, right tusk short off over the little matter of
grouped and motionless in the bush; yet, rooting up a big tree, and the stump had
except when one moved a great sail-like ear rotted, causing agonies which soured the
or switched the tuft at the end of his tail, temper of the owner and caused him to be
you actually, though you might have been a public danger ever since.
standing within yards, could not see them. In spite of feeding, however, the herd was
This, by the way, is one magic of the ele- traveling fairly fast, and it was evident that
phants; they have others equally discon- with the uncanny knowledge elephants pos-
certing . sess of the map they kriew quite well where
Tembo, whose great head appeared to be they were going.
essentially practical, at once got a move on. Once in long grass-ten-foot and thick at
Perhaps they had only been waiting for that-Tembo, whose trunk was as good as a
him. wireless installation to him, turned aside
But Tembo did not lead the way. He swiftly with a sudden trumpet: There was ..,
bowed to the superior cunning of the oppo- a sound as of silk tearing quickly as a big
site sex and let a lean, long, old spinster do body, .or bodies, swished quickly away, and
that. He himself kept discreetly in the mid- as Tembo charged volcanic rumblings shook
dle of the herd, a position more healthy on the hidden dark. But the lions had gone,
trek for one whose tusks measured nine taking their pride of kingship with them.
feet and showed up like a monitor's twelve- _ Once also the next elephant ahead of
inch guns. Tembo threw up his trunk with a sudden
Fifty and one elephants moved through blast of rage, caught hold . of a big bough
the forest, yet, except when a tree snapped and wrenched it, all crackling down in
or a rampart of thorn-bush dissolved, crack- showers of twigs; and an explosion of snarls
ling like musketry-fire before their path, and a vision of a spotted something whirl-
they might have been a company of enor- ing through the pars of moonlight proved
mously magnified ghosts or their own great that a leopard had been lying along that
shadows come to life, for all the noise they bough.
made. ' Once, too, monkeys, unseen and gibber-
And that is another magic of the elephant ing, pelted Tembo with other things than
people. Mostly they moved in single file vile abuse, but • the monster turned in his
or a long, irregular line, cutting and flatten- rage-he hated monkeys, who alone have
ing a swathe through the bush as if a cir- the power to throw things as man has-and _
cumscribed cyclone had passed that way. catching hold of one of the trees they were
At times Tembo swung aside, caught on, bent it bodily in his tremendous power
J old of a tree with his trunk, bringing it almost to the ground. It resisted his ef-
r down with a crack like a pistol-shot and a forts, however, to snap it, being youngish,
c;ash in that immemorial silence) or up- and crashing away in pettish fury, Tembo
roc. ted it with his tusks-they were shallow- let it go.
rJoted mostly, these trees-or got it on the It went-swish-back to the vertical.
swing, butting with his forehead till it col- AJso one monkey who had been just too
hpsed. Then he gathered up fruit, foliage, slow leaping to the next tree went-swish!
branches, twigs and all, and thoughtfully The tree shot back into position as if it were
vi'alked on, chewing a mouthful of wooden a catapult and the monkey was the stone.
fuel, carrying perhaps a spare fagot in his But for all their tremendous bulk and
trunk to go on with. power how astonishing, aye, indeed, mirac-
And you think it very strange that an ele- ulous, was the almost dainty tread and all
phant should chew bark and wood-branches but scientific care of the herd. Thus you
9