elephant, accompanied by a calf, at a range of thirty yards, in a
district where the highest tree was within reach of an elephant's trunk,
the situation was one fraught with tense uncertainty.

Colonel Roosevelt is undoubtedly a brave man. The men who have hunted
with him in Africa say that he has never shown the slightest sign of
fear in all the months of big game hunting that they have done together.
He "holds straight," as they say in shooting parlance, and at short
range, where his eyesight is most effective, he shoots accurately.

This, then, was the dramatic situation at about twelve o'clock noon on
November fifteenth, eight miles east of the Nzoia River, near Mount
Elgon: Eight cow elephants, two _totos_, one ex-president with a
double-barreled cordite rifle thirty yards away, supported by three
other hunters similarly armed, with native gunbearers held in the rear
as a supporting column.

The colonel opened fire; the biggest cow dropped to her knees and in an
instant the air was thunderous with the excited "milling" of the herd of
elephants. For several anxious minutes the spot was the scene of much
confusion, and when quiet was once more restored Colonel Roosevelt had
killed three elephants and Kermit had killed one of the calves. It had
not been intended or desired to kill more than two of the cows, but with
a herd of angry elephants threatening to annihilate an attacking party,
sometimes the prearranged plans do not work out according to
specifications.

Kermit was hastily despatched to notify our camp and the work of
preparing the skins of the elephants was at once begun.

In the meantime, we at our camp, eight miles away from the scene of
battle, were waiting eagerly for news of the hunting party, although
expecting nothing for a day of so. It seemed too much to expect that the
hunt should have such a quick and successful termination. So when Kermit
rode in with the news late in the afternoon it was a time for
felicitation. We all solemnly took a drink, which in itself was an
event, for our camp was a "dry" camp when in the field. Only the killing
of a lion had been sufficient provocation for taking off the "lid," but
on the strength of three elephants for the group the "lid" was
momentarily raised with much ceremony and circumstance.

The burden of Kermit's message was "salt, salt, salt!" and porters and
second gunbearers to help with the skinning. So James L. Clark, who has
been connected with the A