61 



AN ADVENTURE OF GERARD, THE 

 LION HUNTER 



The great interest taken in animals by Alexandre Dumas 

 is well known to all readers of the Animal Story Books, 

 but the stories told in them refer generally to tame or 

 tameable animals. The great novelist, however, was full of 

 interest in every kind of beast, tame or wild, and delighted 

 to hear thrilling stories of hunting adventures, and to 

 write them down afterwards for the benefit of his readers. 



He was dining with some friends one evening, when 

 his servant asked to see him, and said : ' They have been 

 waiting for you this half-hour, sir.' 



Dumas sprang to his feet, and would have hurried 

 from the room at once, but was stopped by the question : 



• Who are waiting for you ? ' 



' Gerard, the lion hunter, and his orderly Amida,' was 

 the answer, as Dumas vanished through the doorway in 

 great haste. 



Ln ten minutes he was at home, and there he found 

 the great hunter, and a few other friends all questioning 

 and listening to him. 



Gerard, who was an officer in one of the Algerian 

 Regiments of Spahis, was about thirty years of age, with 

 a quiet, gentle face, and clear blue eyes. Amida was a 

 tall stately Arab, of five or six and twenty, and as he sat 

 in one corner of the library, wrapped in his white burnous, 

 he was a striking and picturesque figure. 



