The rogue elephant

=THE GIANT MOOSE.= The monarch of the big Northwest; a story told over camp fires in the reek of cedar smoke and the silence of the barrens.

=THE WHITE TIGER OF NEPAL.= The weird story of the man-killer of the foothills. Tinged with the mysticism of India, dramatic and stirring.

=THE BLIND LION OF THE CONGO.= A story of the least known part of the earth and its most feared beast. A gripping tale of the land of the white pigmies.

=THE KING BEAR OF KADIAK ISLAND.= A tale of the bully of the Frozen North and his mysterious guardian. A game-and-man-story that makes a good boy-story.

=THE ROGUE ELEPHANT.= A big game hunt that leads into strange lands and stranger adventures in a real big game country.

Remarkable covers and four-color jackets. Illustrations and cover designs by Dan Sayre Groesbeck

Price 60 cents each

Publishers The Reilly & Britton Co. Chicago

[Illustration: It seemed that the great beast was towering over him, reaching for him with that terrible trunk. Then he drew a careful bead on the left fore-shoulder.]

THE ROGUE ELEPHANT

BY

ELLIOTT WHITNEY

Illustrated by Fred J. Arting

The Reilly & Britton Co. Chicago

COPYRIGHT, 1913 by THE REILLY & BRITTON CO.

THE ROGUE ELEPHANT

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I A CHANCE "OUT" 9

II OFF FOR THE FRONT 21

III QUILQUA THE MYSTERIOUS 33

IV MAKING READY 46

V THE FIRST HUNT 59

VI MOUNT KENIA 71

VII ELEPHANT 83

VIII A RECONNAISSANCE 95

IX INTO THE UNKNOWN 108

X MOWBRAY'S END 120

XI THE DESERT TREK 133

XII A DESERTED LAND 145

XIII A DESPERATE BATTLE 158

XIV THE LAKE OF MYSTERY 170

XV "UNDER THE LEFT GATE-POST" 182

XVI SELIM SHOWS HIS TEETH 194

XVII FRESH SPOOR 206

XVIII LOST! 218

XIX THE ROGUE ELEPHANT 230

XX THE BACK TRAIL 242

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

It seemed that the great beast was towering over him, reaching for him with that terrible trunk. Then he drew a careful bead on the left fore-shoulder. Frontispiece

Everything else was forgotten in the novel method of riding. Page 54

For the man, just as he relapsed into unconsciousness, murmured four words: "Help--me debbil man!" Page 118

One slash of the knife, and out trickled a little stream of yellow grains into the brown fist of the explorer. Page 192

The Rogue Elephant

CHAPTER I

A CHANCE "OUT"

"You are so crazy as a loon! Boys? Boys to such a drip dake? Nein!"

Von Hofe excitedly pounded the table until the attendants at the Explorers' Club stared. Then he leaned back determinedly and lighted his meerschaum. The lean, bronzed man who sat opposite pushed away his maps with a smile.

"You misunderstand, von Hofe. I know both these boys personally and vouch for them. You have agreed that this is to be no milk-and-water trip, with hundreds of porters bearing bath tubs and toilet water, but that we shall live off the land as we go. That right?"

The German nodded amid a cloud of smoke.

"You want me to take you into the elephant country and shoot your specimens. I have agreed to do this. I know Africa and I can do it. You are paying the expenses of the trip, but that is immaterial. If we hitch up, von Hofe, it will be on the understanding that I am in command of this expedition; that I choose those I want to go along, and that you are with me to prepare your specimens and nothing else. Now you can take it or leave it--that's final."

The elderly German paused before replying, the two men searching each other's faces quietly. As most people have it, the famous Dr. Gross von Hofe was a "taxidermist." The average "stuffer," the man who simply covers and replaces the bones of the specimen with excelsior or cotton, is properly named taxidermist, but von Hofe was an artist, known the world over for his wonderful work. In various museums of the world you may see his models, signed like the masterpieces of other artists, of rare and disappearing animals from the distant quarters of the earth, frozen in action, with the setting of the trees, grass, sand or water of their native haunts.