But the little elephant struggled in vain against death. Its body writhed convulsively, it rolled on to its side, its limbs became stiff, and life was extinct.
The mother, after a last moan, a more heart-rendering cry than all, got up suddenly and looked about for vengeance.
The Dinka was still running, but he had already put a considerable distance between himself and the elephant, and had nearly gained the forest where he sought a refuge.
Pursuit was useless, and the animal understood that. Perhaps, too, its marvellous intelligence led it to suppose that the fugitive was not the only enemy, and that other hunters were lying hidden in the clearing behind the thickets. These must be found and killed.
Lashing with its trunk in all directions, and trumpeting loudly, its gaze wandered over the high grass, and at length it made its way directly towards the spot where Madame de Guéran, Miss Poles, and their companions still remained.
The danger was becoming imminent and terrible, for the animal was not thirty paces, distant, when three shots resounded in the air and the elephant, hit in the shoulder, rolled over.
The hunters then left the brake and advanced cautiously, as they had been warned to do. Elephants, thought to be dead, have been known to struggle to their feet, and, with a supreme effort, charge into the midst of their adversaries, to expire, a moment afterwards, on top of their mangled and bleeding corpses. But this one was so thoroughly deprived of life that even Joseph was not afraid to approach it, after having, first of all, shut his eyes and let fly with his rifle into space. He did not neglect any precaution, and was determined to show how brave he could be in face of an enemy incapable of defending itself.
The natives, on whose ground the hunt took place, had withdrawn to a convenient distance on the first appearance of the elephant, but they were not altogether disinterested spectators. Hidden away in all directions, they followed with their eyes every incident from afar, and as soon as they saw the huge beast fall, they rushed upon her from all points of the compass with a celerity quite equal to that shown by them when running away. In speed they rivalled the kites and vultures which had scented the prey from on high, and now flew down from the sky, where a moment before they had been invisible, to share in the feast.
"I have often," says Schweinfurth, "had occasion to notice a similar occurrence in a clear sky. Almost as soon as the quarry has fallen, you may see black specks in the sky increasing gradually in size, and followed by other specks which become enlarged in an equal ratio. They come nearer, and their shape can be made out; they are kites, and vultures, and other birds of prey coming to claim their share of the spoil. One might almost suppose, with the ancients, that the sky is divided into several stages, where the birds of prey, ever on the watch, swoop down from the various regions they occupy, as soon as they see a tempting morsel below."
Crowding round the elephant and disputing its possession with the birds of prey, the natives measured the beast they were about to cut up. It had reached its full development, and was nearly nine feet high, or almost as tall as the males of the Asiatic species.