Instead of seeking a side shot, which he could have obtained with far less trouble--he decided on creeping round in front of the elephant, and firing right in the animal's face.
Leaving Hendrik and Swartboy to attack him from behind, he took a circuit under cover of the bushes; and at length arrived in the path the elephant was most likely to take.
He had scarcely gained his position, when he saw the huge animal coming towards him with silent and majestic tread; and although the elephant only walked, half-a-dozen of his gigantic strides brought him close up to the ambushed hunter.

As yet the creature uttered no cry; but as he moved, Von Bloom could hear a rumbling gurgling sound, as of water dashing to and fro in his capacious stomach! Von Bloom had taken up his position behind the trunk of a large tree.
The elephant had not yet seen him, and, perhaps, would have passed on without knowing that he was there, had the hunter permitted him.

The latter even thought of such a thing, for although a man of courage, the sight of the great forest giant caused him for a moment to quail.
But, again, the curving ivory gleamed in his eyes--again he remembered the object that had brought him into that situation; he thought of his fallen fortunes--of his resolve to retrieve them--of his children's welfare.
These thoughts resolved him.

His long roer was laid over a knot in the trunk--its muzzle pointed at the forehead of the advancing elephant--his eye gleamed through the sights--the loud detonation followed--and a cloud of smoke for a moment hid everything from his view.
He could hear a hoarse bellowing trumpet-like sound--he could hear the crashing of branches and the gurgling of water; and, when the smoke cleared away, to his chagrin he saw that the elephant was still upon his feet, and evidently not injured in the least! The shot had struck the animal exactly where the hunter had aimed it; but, instead of inflicting a mortal wound, it had only excited the creature to extreme rage.

He was now charging about, striking the trees with his tusks, tearing branches off, and tossing them aloft with his trunk--though all the while evidently in ignorance of what had tickled him so impertinently upon the forehead! Fortunately for Von Bloom, a good thick tree sheltered him from the view of the elephant.