my dry lips kept muttering soundlessly, _don't run, don't run_!

I did not run. Instead, I stepped on a smooth surface of rock and
slid downhill like a human toboggan until I fetched up against a
dead log. I discovered it to be a dead log after a confused
interval during which I vaguely believed myself to have been
swallowed by an alligator. While the alligator illusion endured I
must have lain comatose and immovable. Indeed, when my senses
began to come back I was still quite inert. I experienced that
curious tranquillity which is said to visit those who are actually
within the jaws of death. There I lay prone, absolutely at the
mercy of the mysterious white prowler of the forest--and I did not
care. The whole petty business of living seemed a long way behind
me now.

Languidly at last I opened my eyes. Within three yards of me, in
the open rock-paved glade where I had fallen, stood the Thing.

As softly as I had opened my eyes I shut them. I had an annoyed
conviction that they were deceiving me--a very unworthy thing for
eyes to do that were soon to be closed in death. Again I lifted my
lids. Yes, there it was--only now it had put an ear back and was
sniffing at me with a mingling of interest and apprehension..

The strange beast of the jungle was a white bull-terrier.

Abruptly I sat up. The terrier gave a startled sidewise bound, but
paused again and stood regarding me.

"Here, pup! Here, pup! Nice, nice doggums!" I said in soothing