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They must have led me a mile or more at least before they again halted and
commenced to browse upon the rank, luxuriant grasses. All the time that I had
followed them I had kept both eyes and ears alert for sign or sound that would
indicate the presence of Felis tigris; but so far not the slightest indication of the
beast had been apparent.
As I crept closer to the antelope, sure this time of a good shot at a large buck, I
suddenly saw something that caused me to forget all about my prey in
wonderment.
It was the figure of an immense grey-black creature, rearing its colossal shoulders
twelve or fourteen feet above the ground. Never in my life had I seen such a
beast, nor did I at first recognize it, so different in appearance is the live reality
from the stuffed, unnatural specimens preserved to us in our museums.
But presently I guessed the identity of the mighty creature as Elephas africanus,
or, as the ancients commonly described it, African elephant.
The antelope, although in plain view of the huge beast, paid not the slightest
attention to it, and I was so wrapped up in watching the mighty pachyderm that I
quite forgot to shoot at the buck and presently, and in quite a startling manner, it
became impossible to do so.
The elephant was browsing upon the young and tender shoots of some low
bushes, waving his great ears and switching his short tail. The antelope, scarce
twenty paces from him, continued their feeding, when suddenly, from close
beside the latter, there came a most terrifying roar, and I saw a great, tawny body
shoot, from the concealing verdure beyond the antelope, full upon the back of a
small buck.
Instantly the scene changed from one of quiet and peace to indescribable chaos.
The startled and terrified buck uttered cries of agony. His fellows broke and
leaped off in all directions. The elephant raised his trunk, and, trumpeting
loudly, lumbered off through the wood, crushing down small trees and trampling
bushes in his mad flight.
Growling horribly, a huge lion stood across the body of his prey--such a creature
as no Pan-American of the twenty-second century had ever beheld until my eyes
rested upon this lordly specimen of "the king of beasts." But what a different
creature was this fierce-eyed demon, palpitating with life and vigor, glossy of coat,
alert, growling, magnificent, from the dingy, moth-eaten replicas beneath their
glass cases in the stuffy halls of our public museums.
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