e, full-grown cow elk, and hit a bull calf in the hind
leg. Later on he took up the trail of the calf and finished that also.

Of this herd the foreman also brought down two, so that for the time
being the hunters had all the meat they needed. But Theodore Roosevelt
was anxious to obtain some elk horns as trophies of the chase, and day
after day a watch was kept for bull elk, as the hunters moved the camp
from one place to another.

At last the long-looked-for opportunity arrived. Three big bulls were
seen, and Roosevelt and his man went after them with all possible speed.
They were on foot, and the trail led them over some soft ground, and
then through a big patch of burnt timber. Here running was by no means
easy, and more than once both hunters pitched headlong into the dirt and
soot, until they were covered from head to foot. But Theodore Roosevelt
was bound to get the elk, and kept on until the sweat was pouring down
his face and neck. Shot after shot was fired, and all three of the
animals were wounded, but still they kept on bounding away.

"One is down!" shouted Roosevelt at last. And the news proved true; the
smallest of the bulls had rocked unsteadily for a few seconds and gone
to earth. Then on and on after the remaining game sped the hunters,
panting and sweating as before.

"The sweat streamed down in my eyes and made furrows in the sooty mud
that covered my face, from having fallen full length down on the burnt
earth," writes the dauntless hunter, in relating this story. "I sobbed
for breath as I toiled at a shambling trot after them, as nearly done
out as could well be."

But he did not give up; and now the elk took a turn and went downhill,
with Theodore Roosevelt pitching after them, ready to drop from
exhaustion, but full of that grit to win out which has since won the
admiration of all who know the man. The second bull fell; and now but
one remained, and this dashed into a thicket. On its heels went the
daring hunter, running the chance of having the elk turn on him as soon
as cornered, in which case, had Roosevelt's rifle been empty, the
struggle for life on both sides would have been a fierce one.

In the midst of the thicket the hunter had to pause, for the elk was now
out of sight, and there was no telling what new course had been taken by
the game. At a distance he saw a yellow body under the evergreen trees,
and, taking hasty aim, fired. When he came up, he was somewhat dismayed
to learn t