Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Next Page
OCR
wi
RBOYSA
en
reer
mre.
R y) =O
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1982, by Jawes Exvxnson, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.J
JAMES ELVERSON,
Publisher,
VoL. III.
N.W, corner NINTH
and SPRUCE Sts,
PHILADELPHIA, JULY 15, 1882.
TERMS:{ $3.00 PER ANNUM,
No. 32.
IN ADVANCE.
[A hunting adventure in Mysore.]
The Quel of Two Giants
BY DAVID KER,
“1s this a jungle, Ned?”
“That’s what J call it; isn’t it thick
enough for you?”
The veteran’s sarcastic tone was not
without cause, for the jungle through
which they had been plowing their way
laboriously, for an hour aud more, was
one of the thickest
and wildest of those
which cover the foot-
hills of the great
mountain wall of
Mysore,the Switzer-
land of Southern
India.
“TIsn’t this tho
place which you
said was so full of
elephants?” asked
the younger bro-
thér, who, having
just come out to In-
dia for the first time,
was anxious to “win
his first ivory” as
soon as possible. ‘It
won’t be easy to get
hold of them,
though, if they’re
half as clever as
they’re said to be.”
“Which they’re
not, you may take
my word for it,”
laughed the elder.
“My dear boy, you
mustn't judge the
elephant by the sto-
ries you read about
himin books, which
having gone on for
years without being
contradicted, have
come at last to be re-
ceived as solid fact.
There’s that yarn,
now, of a tailor who
pricked an ele-
phant’s trunk with
his needle, and the
out by splashing
water over his work, and spoiling it.
Now, how on earth should a beast whose
greatest delight is to splash water over |
himself, guess that the very same thing |
would be a punishment to any one else?
T’ve had five years’ experience of the
elephant, in every possible way, and my
opinion is that, although he can do many
things very well when he has been
taught, he’s naturally rather a stupid
beast than othcrwise.”*
Frank Ashton’s countenance fell; for;
*The same opinion is held by several of
bs authorities in India, who also
maintain that the three species of Indian
elephants ditfer markedly inintelligeuce. |
like most untraveled readers, he had al-
ways been a firm believer in the “ pre-
ternatural sagacity”’ of the elephant, and
to find his sagacious giant suddenty
dwarfed into “ rather a stupid beast than
otherwise”? was a heavy blow.
But at that moment a sound was heard
which put everything else out of his
head in an instant—the strange, discord-
ant noise, something like the blast of a
cracked trumpet, which announces the
presence of the jungie king.
“Hati! hati!’ (elephant! elephant!)
whispered their native attendant—an
old Mysorean hunter—with a flash of
stern enjoyment in his small, black
i eyes.
Quick as thought, the three dropped
into a hollow at the foot of a giant ban-
yan, and peered watchfully through the
lattice-work of intertwisted roots, hold-
ing their breath, as the shrill trumpet-
ing and the crashing of the broken
bushes came nearer and nearer. |
At last, a huge black head thrust itself
through the tangled leaves, and out into
the tiny glade, on the edge of which
they were crouching, broke a full-grown
“bull,” of the largest size, with a pair
“THEY CLOSED AGAIN, AND THE FIGHT WAS DESPERATE FOR 80ME MINUTES.”
of shining tusks, the very sight of which
made Frank’s mouth water.
The young fellow thrust forward his
rifle with hands that quivered with ex-
citement, and was just about to fire at
hap-hazard, when his more experienced
brother stopped him short. :
Meanwhile, the elephant had advanc-
ed into the centre of the open space,
snuffing the air and moying his enor-
mous ears restlessly to an fro. Sudden-
ly he struck the ground angrily with his
mighty foot, and, throwing his trunk
forward, sent forth a hoarse blast of de-
fiance.
The challenge did not remain long
unanswered. A counter-blast replied
to it as promptly as an echo, and then a
crashing and trampling sound was heard
in the thicket on the opposite side of the
glade.
“Now, Frank, my boy,’ whispered
Edward Ashton,. “you'll see a sight
worth looking at. There's going to bea
fight; and a fight between two full-
grown elephants is a thing that you
don’t see every day, I can tell you!”
As he spoke, a second elephant, quite
as large as the first, appeared on the
edge of the clearing, and advanced
slowly into it.
{| The two monsters eyed each other
| warily for a moment, as if measuring
each other’s strength; and then camea
simmitaneous rush that made the earth
tremble, and ashock that sounded like
the collision of two loaded freight-cars. -
“Round number one,” whispered the
| elder brother to the younger, with an
appreciative chuckle, “and well fought
on both sides.”
“And first blood to both, seemingly,”
answered the other,
in the same tone.
In fact, the left
ear of the second
bly mangled by the
tusk of his adversa-
ry, while the latter’s
broad forehead,'cov-
ered with blood
from a gash which
seemed as if made
‘ by a. plow-share,
counter-stroke had
not been ‘dealt in
vain.
They closed again,
and the fight was
desperate for some
minutes. The air
rang With the hoarse
Screams of the con-
tending giants, as
their vast, black
bodies swayed to
and fro, trampling
into mire the soft
earth, which was al-
ready moistened
with their blood.
The huge trunks
writhed in the air
like serpents, and
two or three small
trees that grew in
the centre of the
glade, snapped off
short, like sticks of
sealing- wax, bore
terrible witness to
the irresistible
strength ofthe brute
, combatants.
All of a sudden, one of the two was
seen to reel back, asif struck by a can-
non-ball, and then trot heavily off into
the jungle, with the blood pouring from
a terrific wound in his side.
“}Ie’s too hard hit to go far,’’ said
Edward Ashton to his brother. “We
shall be sure of Aim, anyhow.”
But Frank was too eager to listen to
him. Fearing to lose both elephants,
and determined to secure at least the
one that remained, he fired hastily, and,
instead of hitting the vulnerable part in
the centre of the forehead, only grazed
the extended trunk.
The sudden sting of the bullet roused _
elephant was terri- ~
showed that the ~