fired. Down it went dead, whereon, rejoicing in his triumph like any other
young hunter who thinks not of the wonderful and happy life that he has
destroyed, Richard sprang upon it exultantly, drawing his knife as he
came, while Rachel, who always shrank from such sights, retreated to the
cave. Half an hour later, however, being healthy and hungry, she had no
objection to eating venison toasted upon sticks in the red embers of their
fire.

Their meal finished at length, they reloaded the gun, and although the
mist was still very dense, set out upon a journey of exploration, as by
now the sun was shining brightly above the curtain of low-lying vapour.
Stumbling on through the rocks, they discovered that the water had fallen
almost as quickly as it rose on the previous night. The island was strewn,
however, with the trunks of trees and other debris that it had brought
down, amongst which lay the carcases of bucks and smaller creatures, and
with them a number of drowned snakes. The two lions, however, appeared to
have escaped by swimming, at least they saw nothing of them. Walking
cautiously, they came to the edge of the donga, and sat down upon a stone,
since as yet they could not see how wide and deep the water ran.

Whilst they remained thus, suddenly through the mist they heard a voice
shouting from the other side of the donga.

"Missie," cried the voice in Dutch, "are you there missie?"

"That is Tom, our driver," she said, "come to look for me. Answer for me,
Richard."

So the lad, who had very good lungs, roared in reply: