THE ELEPHANT WANTS TO GO HOME.
If he had known what he ought to do, he would have turned on those darkies and chased them about half a mile. In that way he would have managed very soon to relieve himself of his troublesome pursuers. They would have gone home quite as rapidly as he wanted to go to his home.
Colonel Myles staid in Africa nearly a year and sometimes had a good deal of exciting hunting, and at other times weeks would pass when he was obliged to stay in some native village for want of transportation and guides.
Sometimes too, he found himself in a part of the country where there was no large game worth mentioning.
He tried hard to find a gorilla, but never succeeded. He often heard lions in the night, and once came upon a big fellow who was lying down by the side of a fallen tree in the very road over which he and his followers were traveling. The tree was of a yellowish brown color and the lion was of very much the same color, so the Colonel did not see him until he came quite near to him.
As quickly as possible he jerked his rifle from his shoulder, but his horse started and reared, and the lion sprang to his feet, and giving one hasty look at the advancing party, disappeared in the bushes.
The Colonel was very much disappointed at this mishap, and it was shortly after he had made up his mind that he never would get a good shot at a lion, that he concluded to go to India.
A party of traders were on their way to the coast, and the Colonel joined them.
Reaching the coast he found a vessel nearly ready to sail, and in it he took passage to Bombay.