Page:Dapples of the Circus (1943).pdf/130

 elephant rifle which the management always carried. The poor Emperor, who was really not to blame for the fight, seemed to be getting the worst of it. He was not so strong nor so young as his assailant. His shoulders fairly ran blood from several gaping wounds inflicted by the sharp tusks of El Capitan.

Back and forth the fight swayed, but the Emperor was always the one to give ground. Finally, in an unlucky moment, El Capitan pinned him fairly against a tree by the roadside and then drove his tusks deep in his side, just back of the heart. With a mighty sigh of pain the great beast sank to his knees, just as the man with the elephant rifle galloped up.

One shot from the heavy gun, aimed at the heart, also brought Ell Capitan to his knees beside his vanquished foe, while another in the head laid him upon his side, within twenty feet of the tree where Freckles was still clinging.

It took only a few moments' scrutiny of