Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/299

 pace, and his speed was now that of a horse at full gallop.

"The devil!" exclaimed Kennedy.

"What a hard head he must have," said Joe.

"We must try a conical bullet in the shoulder," said Dick, loading his gun with great care. He fired. The elephant uttered a fearful scream, but still went on gallantly.

"Look here," said Joe, taking up one of the rifles, "I must help you, Mr. Dick, or we shall never get to the end of this."

And two bullets were quickly lodged in the flank of the animal. He stopped, raised his trunk high in the air, and then continued his rapid course towards the wood. He kept shaking his enormous head, and blood began to flow from his wounds.

"Let us keep firing, Mr. Dick," said Joe.

"Yes, and well-sustained fire, too," said the doctor; "we are only a few yards from the wood."

Ten shots were rapidly fired; the elephant made a terrific bound; the car and the balloon cracked as if they were coming to pieces. The shock caused the doctor to drop the ax to the ground.

Their situation was critical. The rope of the grapnel was fastened so tightly that it could not be detached, nor could it be cut by the knives the travelers possessed. The balloon was rapidly nearing the wood when the elephant received a bullet in the eye at the moment he raised his head. He stopped, appeared to hesitate for a moment, then his knees bent beneath him, and he exposed his flank to the assailants.

"Now for a bullet in his heart," cried Kennedy, as he discharged his carbine for the last time.

The elephant uttered a roar of agony and distress, half raised himself for an instant as he waved his trunk to and fro, and then fell with all his immense weight upon one of his tusks, which was broken short off. He was dead.

"His tusk is broken," cried Kennedy. "That ivory would fetch thirty-five guineas the hundredweight in England."

"So much for that," said Joe, as he lowered himself to the ground by the grapnel-rope.

"Why these regrets, my dear Dick?" replied the doctor.