jack norton had dashed only a few yards, when the terrified look he cast over his shoulder told him the elephant was giving his whole attention to billy, and seemed to have forgotten all about him. instantly he was filled with alarm for his young friend, and started back to the log to get his rifle, that neither had thought of in the panic.
as he knelt behind the fallen tree, to make his aim sure, he descried a queer object going through the limbs of a large oak, and did not identify it, until it lodged fast, as his friend billy wiggins.
jack had no more idea of the fatal point at which to aim his weapon than you have, but knowing that he must do something, and, with a dread that the elephant after all, might succeed in climbing the oak and getting at his friend, he let fly.
gordon cumming himself could not have done better. the tiny bullet bored its way into the vast bulk, just back of the fore leg and went directly through the heart. the huge brute, as if conscious that he was mortally hurt, swung part way round, so as to face the point whence the shot had come. catching sight of the kneeling youngster, with the muzzle of his rifle still smoking, he plunged toward him. he took a couple of steps, swayed to one side, moved uncertainly forward again, then stopped, tried to steady himself, and finally went over sideways, like a mountain, crashing the saplings and undergrowth near him, and snapping one of his magnificent tusks into splinters. he was dead.
when the boys fully comprehended what had taken place, they were not a little alarmed and puzzled, and started home, wondering whether their game was a descendant of the creatures that used to inhabit that section, or whether he was a visitor to these parts. they had not gone far, however, when they met the attaches of the menagerie and circus to whom they related what had occurred.
the proprietors were relieved on learning the whole truth, for there could be little doubt that the sudden ending of the career of vladdok was the means of saving more than one person from death.
as for jack norton and billy wiggins, it was generally conceded that they spoke the truth, when they declared:
"our fathers wouldn't let us go to the circus that afternoon, but i guess we had a bigger circus than any of you all to ourselves."
