So we went to the tent and speedily made way with what the cook had prepared. It was a modest repast, consisting of coffee, with plenty of sugar and no milk, and some steaks of hartbeest broiled over the coals of a thorn-bush fire. For bread we had what the English colonist calls damper—dough made of flour and water, and baked in a Dutch oven. Very good bread can be made in this way, but not by the ordinary Hottentot cook, such as one engages for an African hunting-expedition.
We disposed of our breakfast with a rapidity that would have done honor to a railway-station where the train halts ten minutes for refreshments. In considerably less than ten minutes we had finished breakfast and were getting our rifles ready for business.
We took our heaviest rifles, as the game was of a kind to require a liberal amount of lead to bring it down. My elephant-gun carried six bullets to the pound; it was a breech-loader of the Remington pattern, and of a weight proportioned to its caliber. A trusty negro boy carried it for me, and his instructions were to keep close at my heels wherever I went, whenever we were out on a hunting-expedition.
Jack and Harry had a similar equipment, except that their rifles carried eight bullets to the pound, and consequently had a little less penetrating power than my own. Each of us had a supply of explosive bullets, in addition to the solid ones, and in the course of this narrative the reader will learn how these explosive bullets were used.
When a party goes out on a hunting-expedition there is always a risk that somebody will shoot somebody else; elephant and buffalo hunting is nearly always conducted among trees or bushes, very rarely in open ground, and where parties are within gunshot of one another it is impossible always to avoid accidents, even with the greatest care. For this reason it was our custom to scatter about a good deal, first ascertaining the position of the game, and the direction in which it would be likely to run when disturbed.
Mirogo, my native tracker, who had discovered the troop of elephants, said they were in a little piece of forest adjoining a swamp on the banks of the Luranga River. As he described the forest we made out that it was not more than forty or fifty acres in extent, while the swamp was much larger. After some discussion it was arranged that Harry should make a circuitous course to the farther side of the forest, Jack was to remain on the hither side, while Frank (that is my name) would penetrate the wooded ground and literally stir up the animals, getting the most effective shot that he could while so doing.
It was necessary to be very careful about giving the elephants our wind; if they once got scent of us they would be off in a hurry. Fortune favored us in this respect, as the wind blew directly across the forest toward the point where we reached it. Consequently the animals were not likely to scent us, provided neither Harry nor Jack proceeded too far along their respective sides of the lair of the elephants.
I sat down and waited while Harry and Jack were reaching their positions, and during my waiting spell I listened intently for a sound of the animals. Now and then the breeze brought to my ears the crashing of the limbs and trees, and the low trumpetings of the elephants as they called to one another while taking their morning feed. It was evident they had not been alarmed and were totally unaware of the danger that threatened them.
When I had allowed a sufficient time, as I thought, for my friends to reach their stations, I proceeded cautiously into the forest, preceded by Mirogo, the tracker, and closely followed by Kalil, my gun-bearer.
We advanced in the direction of the sound of the crashing of limbs, keeping carefully up the wind; and when within two or three hundred yards, as nearly as I could judge, of the elephants, I took possession of my gun and cartridge-belt, and told Kalil to stand by with more cartridges ready to give me in case I needed them.