another rogue
elephant.

"No fear of that," he answered. "I keep my eye about me; and, in truth,
I should rather enjoy being again chased. It is but fair, considering
how fond I am of hunting animals, that I should occasionally be hunted
in return."

We had accomplished four days of our journey, when, early in the
morning, Stanley was riding some distance ahead, and Timbo and I were
keeping at the side of Natty's litter. Natty was, I hoped, decidedly
better. He was able to walk about every evening in the cool, and would
sit at the camp-fire and join in conversation as well as any of us. We
were passing along the edge of a wood, of which there were several
scattered about in sight, though the country was generally open. A
shorter way might have been found, perhaps, through the wood; but our
black friends declined entering it, declaring that many lions lurked
there, and urging us to be on the watch for them.

"I only wish some of them would come out," observed Stanley. "I should
like to carry home the hide of one, for I have lost all those I have
killed."

Stanley, as I have said, was a little in advance, keeping close to the
wood, looking apparently into it in search of game, for he was as good a
shot on horseback as on foot. Presently I saw his horse swerve on one
side. With whip and spur he brought the animal again up to the wood.
Just then there was a fearful roar. The horse again started on one
side, the suddenness of his movement almost unseating his rider, whose
cap was knocked off. The next moment a huge lion, breaking cover,
sprang out of the wood with a tremendous bound, and alighted on the back
of the horse, grasping Stanley with one of his tremendous claws.
Stanley, leaning over his horse's neck to avoid him, in vain attempted
with his rifle to beat off the savage brute. To gallop to his rescue
was the impulse of the moment. In another instant my cousin might be
killed; for had he once been dragged from his horse, nothing could have
prevented the lion seizing him between his powerful jaws, wide open at
that moment to grasp him. The risk Stanley had run in the adventure
with the elephant seemed as nothing compared to the awful danger in
which he was now placed. Our horses, though not unaccustomed to carry
their riders in chase of lions, trembled in every limb. The frightened
blacks were about to fly, leaving Natty on the ground. I shouted to
them to come back, when Timbo and I spurred on