wn weakly on a fallen bamboo, gazing at the tremendous
bulk five feet away. Jack, deadly pale, gripped his gun and waited while
the crashings and trumpetings died away. The explorer, his deep bronze
flushed with red, smiled and mopped his face.

"By George, that was a close thing, boys! I wouldn't go through that
again for a million dollars cash." He turned and gripped the hands of
the gun-bearers. "Guru, Amir, Akram, you are men! I am proud of you!"

"I guess we all owe you a vote of thanks, General," smiled Jack weakly.
Charlie nodded.

"You bet! Jack and I both missed his eye--what dandy shots those were!"

The nervy Indians showed their white teeth at the praise showered on
them, and a moment after, von Hofe appeared excitedly, followed by a
stream of Masai and Kikuyu. These gave wild yells of excitement and
leaped and danced on the fallen carcasses, while the story of that
terrible moment was told the doctor. He could barely speak, as he
realized what the danger had been.

"Himmel! Ach, er ist--it iss vonderful! Bang-bang, und you haf ein,
zwei, drei cows, two calfs, und a bull killed! I shall no more say--ach!
Avay--raus!"

And with a roar of anger he rushed at one of the Masai who had
triumphantly thrust his long spear into the elephant's hide. The
warrior gave one look, then vanished with a long leap, while the
disgusted doctor pulled out the spear and flung it after him.

"Afraid they'll spoil your skin, eh?" laughed the explorer. The swift
change from the tragic to the ridiculous restored them all to even
balance once more, and they went forward to examine the kill. It was
indeed a wonderful example of shooting, the whole affair having taken
hardly more than two or three minutes, and Charlie found it hard to
realize that in such a short space of time they had almost fulfilled the
requirements of the whole world-over expedition.

The bull was a large, old fellow, and the General pronounced his tusks
as weighing at least a hundred and thirty pounds each. It was a great
piece of luck that he should have wandered out of the wilds almost to
their side, for full-grown bulls with good tusks are rarely found. The
big Teuton pronounced him exactly suitable for one of his groups.

The two cows who had been shot together were both of good size; the
third was smaller. The two largest were selected for skinning, together
with the calves. For a few moments the doctor sketched and
photographed, then handed over the