From the forest to the open country again was a pleasant change, but the guide lost the way once in crossing a plain, and they were obliged to retrace their steps for a couple of hours. While they were feeling in ill-humor at the consequent loss of time one of the scouts reported a herd of elephants a mile or so to windward, and the captain at once determined to try his hand among them. Frank and Abdul were sent to the right of where the herd was feeding, while Captain Mohammed and his gun-bearer went to the left. The plain was covered with long grass, and there were many small mounds, with shrubs on their crests, so that they formed admirable places for concealment. Frank obtained a good position behind one of the mounds, and the captain was similarly placed, a quarter of a mile away. We will let Frank tell the story: "A couple of men had been sent away to the rear of the herd to drive them in our direction, and we had just fairly settled into our positions, when the elephants caught the scent of the drivers and begun to move. Unfortunately for me, they went in the line of the captain, and I had to sit still without firing a shot. But what I missed the captain gained, and perhaps he gained more than he wanted. [Illustration: A DANGEROUS POSITION.] "Five or six elephants advanced directly toward him, and when they were not more than forty yards away he fired at the largest. The shot had the effect of alarming the herd greatly, but without bringing down anything. The wounded elephant whirled about and roared, and then stood still among his companions, to see where the danger came from. "The smell of the powder revealed that their assailant was at the foot of the mound in front of them, and immediately the herd gathered in line and prepared to charge. The captain and his gun-bearer would have been trampled to death in a moment if the elephants had made their charge, and he was certainly in an awkward predicament. "They stood in a sideway position, so that he didn't have a fair shot at the foreheads of any of them. Unless you hit an African elephant square in the centre of the forehead there is little hope of killing him. The captain's only safety was in frightening them, and so he fired at the sides of their heads, and let off two shots in quick succession. This had the effect of turning them round, and drove them to where I was concealed in the tall grass, at the foot of another mound. "I ran the same risk as the captain, but with the difference that the elephants were frightened and making a straight course over my position in order to get away. Abdul sprung to his feet and fired, and so did I; and then we shouted, and kept the shots going, one after the other, till we made a greater panic even than the captain had created.