ROOSEVELT HUNTS ANIMALS OF DARK CONTINENT 409 
slightly wounded the great cat, and with a snarl of pain and fear it 
broke into a quick gallop across the plain, leading its pursuers for 
several miles and finally taking refuge in a close thicket. 
A wounded lion in such a covert is a dangerous beast and Selous 
strongly advised his companions not to follow it into its hiding place. 
But Roosevelt, excited by the hunt, was not to be restrained. In the 
absence of native beaters to drive out the lurking beast, he plunged 
into the thicket himself, finding it so close in places that he was obliged 
to creep forward on hands and knees. Selous followed this risky 
venture and Kermit brought up the rear. 
Selous was soon startled to see Colonel Roosevelt rise suddenly 
to his feet at a spot where a small opening was visible through a fringe 
of tall grass. He was gazing keenly forward and lifting his rifle 
hastily to his shoulder. The trained hunter looked in the same direc¬ 
tion and to his surprise and alarm he saw a herd of about a dozen 
elephants advancing with stately tread through the open space, led 
by a huge, swaying tusker, at which Roosevelt was on the point of 
taking aim. The great-bodied animal was less than two hundred feet 
away. A shot at that distance was a perilous risk. Selous sprang 
forward with a start of alarm and whispered excitedly in the ear of 
his inexperienced companion: 
“Don’t shoot! On your life, don’t shoot! A bullet will bring a 
charge of the herd and we may be trampled to death! Follow me!” 
The ardent sportsman with reluctance lowered his rifle and fol¬ 
lowed the experienced hunter, who led them on a long detour to the 
leeward of the quick-scented animals. Reaching a safer spot, he bade 
his comrades to climb a tree 1 :arby and hastily followed them himself 
into the branches. As they scrambled up the trunk they could hear 
the bushes and reeds cracking before the advance of the heavy-footed 
elephants, and in a minute or two more caught sight of them through 
a screen of lofty reeds that bordered their path. In a whisper Selous 
advised his excited comrade how to aim, and Roosevelt, raising his 
trusty Winchester, sent a half dozen bullets in rapid succession into 
the bulky leader of the herd. 
The wounded tusker, with a scream of pain, instantly charged in 
the line of fire, but fortunately for the hunters he had received a death 
