444 TRIUMPHANT CLOSE OF A THRILLING HUNT. 



ciable degree, he looked, to use his own words, able to " hit the lino 

 hard." 



Although the ex-President had refused to grant an interview 

 or give out a statement on public questions until he was in possession 

 of the fullest information on all points, he realizes, he said, that he 

 had before him a series of harder working days than jungle 

 hunting. 



Shortly after 4 o'clock in the afternoon the steamer came up 

 slowly to the palace dock, amid a continuous volley of cheers. 

 Colonel Roosevelt was warmly greeted by Major-General Sir Rudolf 

 Baron Slatin Pasha, inspector general, and Major P. R. Phipps, the 

 sirdar's private secretary. 



He and other members of the party were conducted to the palace 

 grounds, where the heads of the various governmental departments 

 were introduced and tea was served. The sirdar's palace is situated 

 in the center of six acres of beautiful gardens. It stands on the 

 site of Gordon's palace, on the steps of which Gordon was slain. 



MEETS WIFE AND DAUGHTER. 



After tea the Colonel and his son crossed the river to the 

 Khartoum north station, where Mrs. Roosevelt and Miss Ethel 

 arrived shortly afterward on an express. Arrangements had been 

 made so that the meeting was in private, and the reunited family 

 remained within the palace car for some time, coming forth laugh- 

 ing and happy. They returned together to the sirdar's palace. 



Colonel Roosevelt spoke enthusiastically about his hunting trip, 

 but he acknowledged that he was a trifle homesick and was not sorry 

 to return to civilization. 



The party secured an enormous bag of game in the Sudd dis- 

 trict, where, Mr. Roosevelt said, they had not been troubled at all by 

 mosquitoes, which usually are an almost unbearable pest. The 

 Colonel was much interested in the Uganda missions, and spoke in 

 high terms of the Lado Enclave, which he visited. 



The steamer Dal, upon which the American members of the 

 Smithsonian African expedition made the trip from Gondokoro, 

 was delayed somewhat by the unusually turbulent waters of the 



