inutes
ago, but he did not stay there long. As to lions, I think we are not
very likely to see any; we cannot see very much of the rocks from this
place, and I should like to be able to watch you when you go out to
shoot the lions. Cannot we move the ship to a place nearer the rocks,
where we can see everything?"

"Of course we can, little woman," answered Sir Reginald, genially.
"And, while we are about it," he added, turning to the others, "we may
as well make a complete circuit of the entire patch--execute a
reconnaissance, in fact; it may enable us to discover some trace of our
quarry, and so save us a long, toilsome tramp in the heat."

And, thereupon, he returned to the pilot-house to put the big ship in
motion.

A few seconds later, with a gentle and almost imperceptible jar, the
_Flying Fish_ rose from the ground to the height of about two hundred
feet, and, with her engines only just turning, began to circle slowly
round the somewhat extensive outcrop, while the party on deck keenly
searched with their binoculars the several irregularities of its surface
as they swung into view. For some twenty minutes or so the search
proved unsuccessful, and the men were beginning to feel just a trifle
anxious when Lethbridge exclaimed, with a sigh of relief--

"Ah! now we are getting `warm,' as Ida would say. Do you see that small
bunch of gazelle drinking at the pool yonder? Where they are, there
also--or not very far off--will our friend Leo be, I fancy."

In a moment every glass was directed full upon the half-dozen or so of
graceful animals that were now in full view scarcely a quarter of a mile
distant, but which had hitherto been hidden by a huge intervening mass
of rock. It appeared as though Lethbridge's assumption would probably
prove correct, for the animals betrayed evident signs of uneasiness, as
though suspicious of danger, though unable to determine the point from
which to expect it. They drank hesitatingly, taking small sips of water
and then throwing up their heads with a startled air, their ears
twitching incessantly, and their bodies braced as though in readiness to
bound off like a flash at the first suspicious sign. The party who
watched them with such interest were at first disposed to attribute the
uneasiness of the animals to the presence of the _Flying Fish_, which
was now in full view; but von Schalckenberg, who was a good deal of a
naturalist as well as an experienced _shikari_, confide