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"No, sir," said Venning; but it required an effort not to make a bolt for it when he saw the friendly gleam of the fire. Mr. Hume followed slowly, with his head over his shoulder, towards the place where the growling came from. When he reached the fire he gave a great sigh of relief. "Thank God. Now tell us what happened, my boy;" and he put his hand on Venning's arm.
They turned in very early after banking up leaves over the fires under the biltong strips, to give them a good smoking during the night, but in the small hours, when the night is at its quietest, the moonlight, shining on Venning's face, woke him. The fires were glowing bright, altogether too bright for safety, and he rose to cover the glare with some green leaves.
"It is your shot, Godfrey; take him just behind the shoulder." Venning's heart was thumping against his ribs; but he steadied himself for the shot, and fired. The lion sprang forward, snarling, and faced about towards his enemies.
He kept Venning's thoughts off the mental picture of the charging lion until dawn, when all hands prepared for the hunt. "If you hit him hard he will be lying near, and I guess it will be a different matter meeting him by daylight eh, my lad?" Venning looked into the hunter's calm eyes, and felt strong.
He yawned and patted its head; but, instead of sitting down, it ran a few yards, sniffed the air, whined, came back, glanced long over its shoulder into the riverbed, looked into Venning's face, then ran off in the direction of the camp. As soon as it was gone Venning felt lonely.
Then Venning's eyes closed, his chin dropped, the gun settled between his knees, and he was asleep. He was asleep, and he was awake again so suddenly that he did not know he had slept until he saw the position of the gun. The jackal plucked at his blanket. He remembered that something had disturbed him, and he judged that the jackal had done the same thing just before.
One of the wonders of the world; and you've got the crow over Dick this time." Venning sighed. "It's rather awful," he muttered. "It's grand, lad, grand! See how the water juts out like a column of steam with the roar of a big gun, and how the light falls upon it in a thousand hues, as the fine spray falls." Venning's eyes opened wide as they looked up.
Hume and the designer sat in the well. Compton's clear-cut face, with well-formed jaws, showed no other sign of interest than a rather amused smile, but Venning's fair features were flushed with excitement and nervous expectation, A man pushed the boat out. It moved at first sluggishly. "Full speed ahead!" cried out Mr. Hume.
One glance at the thing by any one else would have been more than enough, so terrible it was; but Venning's overpowering curiosity as a naturalist mercifully blotter-put the horror. He was trying to identify it, and made mental notes such as these:
He tied one on Venning's back and one on his own. "Forward!" When they wished to proceed, however, they could not find the continuation of the passage, and, to their dismay, it seemed as if they would have to retrace their steps in search for another way out, when behind a hanging mat in the left-hand corner they found a narrow opening.
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