An hour before noon
The elephants were far , far above him in power of love and kindness ; one had to descend straight to the alligators to match him , and even then one found oneself at fault . He was not . Those three words alone describe this figure of india-rubber that could still walk and talk and live and lust , and to whom slaying and torture were amongst the æsthetics of life . An hour before noon , beyond and above a clump of trees , he sighted a moving object . It was the head of a giraffe . It was the very same bull giraffe that had fled with the elephant herd and then wheeled away south from it . It was wandering devious now , feeding by itself , and the instant Félix saw the tell-tale head , he dropped flat to the ground as if he had been shot .