Page 136 - Adventure Magazine, 1921, July 18th

Big Tusks 131
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I Tembo, the mighty one, was leading now; less bull stopped short, but the one-tusked
and setting a pace that none, perhaps, save bull-the light of killing and destruction,
elephants could .hope to follow. He seemed if not of pain, still smoldering in his unfor-
l to be anxious to get on, and he got on, gellable little eyes-came on till he checked
through and over everything; even across a and stood about a gun-shot length in front
river, and the jungle or the forest did not of Tembo.
grow that could bar his tremendous _way. Thus placed, then, for some minutes the
The regal sun, crimson, gold, saffron and two eyed each other, apparently placidly,
yellow, had been up an hour. For some almost motionless, enormous, somber and
time the gray lauries had been calling, "Go brooding.
away! Go away!" and the vultures were Then, so suddenly that a serval cat who
hanging themselves up in the kindling had crept out after a weaver-bird jumped
heavens, and the heat was beginning to be- back in fear, Tembo beat the ground hol-
come a factor before Tembo gave the invisi- lowly with his trunk and without any warn-
ble, inaudible signal to hal_t. ing at all he charged. It was a most unex-
And the herd halted in a series of glades pected thing, this fan-eared, straight-
in otherwise dense forest. And that spot trunked, trumpeting, lowered-head onset
was nearly thirty miles from the scene of of the tremendous leader upon his fellow.
the overnight foray. So, too, was the way the one-tusked bull
Then was seen a peculiar phenomenon met Tembo, for he did nothing. At least
and a rather mysterious one. Although no he did nothing except swerve a little at the
sound had been uttered or visible sign made, last moment, and that seemed to be worse
it was obvious that the herd acted under than nothing, for it caused him to receive
some mysterious direction, as the far-flung his opponent's full weight upon his right
battle-fleet maneuvers obedient to the dic- shoulder . . The mere impact alone was ap- ......_
tates of the wireless command. palling, and the crash of it seemed to shake-
The cow elephants, with young and with- the ground.
out, herded together and sought the-shade The one-tusked bull' staggered plairi.ly,
under the edge of the forest itself in groups blundered sidewise and recovered. A great
and alone. The bulls-four in number-, flaming bar of crimson leaped out in the
drew apart and stood together in. a group , sun upon his shoulder as Tembo drew back
under a giant lone :fig-tree upon a little but the former came round quick as a cat 1
knoll-'-all facing in the direction the herd and the two collided together, forehead to
had been going and down-wif!d, with Tembo mighty forehead, tusk striking tusk with a
a little apart fr.om these again, but close to monumental heave.
them and alone facing up-wind in the di- For long minutes the two lords of the
rection whence they had come. forest strained, head to endrmous head
And upon all was a suggestion of waiting, such a strain in mere foot-pounds' pressur:
an appearance <Jf expectancy both uncanny alon~ as one can scarcely ""guess at, rocking
and inexplicable. Wonderful to say, in- and snorting as they pushed. Finally how-
deed, though so huge -and rarely still-from ever, breathing hard through his trunk in
flapped ear to shifting foot, to restless, air- great gaips, the one-tusked bull began to
testing trunk-those great beasts were in give ground; and at last, freeing himself
sympathy with their surroundings so mar- cleverly, brought his single ivory round upon
velously that before you had seen them Tembo's flank with terrific force.
you would probably have found yourself The resulting wound would have crushed
right among the herd. the life out of any save an elephant, but its
sole effect upon Tembo was to cause him
~ AFTER half an hour that for which to bring his trunk down across his antag-
it
~ now seemed the great beasts had onist's face with a force that would surely
been waiting turned up. The one- have brained even a lion.
tusked bull and his crony without any tusks The one-tusked bull drew back and in a
at all arrived, following on the trail-un- breath Tembo had charged him. The blow
mistakable by smell and sign-of the herd, incalculable in its force, was a full squar~
and in single :file. one. Tembo's tusks landed full upon the
When still one hundred yards or more foe's side an1 the latter staggered heavily
away from the mammoth fig-tree, the tusk- and blundermgly away, snapping off a
-