so we went down to the beautiful spot that I have described, to wash.
I was the first to reach it, which I did by scrambling down the ferny
bank. Then I turned round, and started back with a yell--as well I
might, for almost from beneath my feet there came a most awful snarl.

"I had lit nearly upon the back of the lioness, that had been sleeping
on the slab where we always stood to dry ourselves after bathing. With
a snarl and a growl, before I could do anything, before I could even
cock my rifle, she had bounded right across the crystal pool, and
vanished over the opposite bank. It was all done in an instant, as
quick as thought.

"She had been sleeping on the slab, and oh, horror! what was that
sleeping beside her? It was the red remains of poor Jim-Jim, lying on
a patch of blood-stained rock.

"'Oh! father, father!' shrieked Harry, 'look in the water!'

"I looked. There, floating in the centre of the lovely tranquil pool,
was Jim-Jim's head. The lioness had bitten it right off, and it had
rolled down the sloping rock into the water.



CHAPTER III

JIM-JIM IS AVENGED

"We never bathed in that pool again; indeed for my part I could never
look at its peaceful purity fringed round with waving ferns without