ro unmolested. Gradually the number of
animals coming down to drink grew less and less, until at length no more
came at all, and the spot seemed to be completely deserted. And then,
with the cessation of the coming and going, the vigilance of the
watchers gradually relaxed, and the thought occurred to Mildmay that
they might as well be getting back to the ship. He made the suggestion
to von Schalckenberg, but the latter pleaded so earnestly for an hour or
two longer, urging the possibility of a visit from the unicorns, that
the good-natured sailor readily gave way, with the remark--

"All right, Professor. `In for a penny, in for a pound;' I don't mind.
Only--I suppose a fellow mustn't smoke?"

"Smoke! oh no," answered the professor, in keen distress at thus being
obliged to deny his companion the solace of a pipe. "Do you think I am
not pining for a smoke, too?" argued the scientist. "But were we to do
so, the smell of the burning tobacco would scare everything away.
Nothing would come near us. We will fill ourselves up with smokes when
by-and-by we walk back to the ship."

So Mildmay settled himself down as comfortably as he could once more,
and never knew when sleep overtook him. As for the professor, he was
quite determined to remain where he was until daylight, if need were.
He told himself that the unicorns _must_ drink somewhere, and why not
here? It was as likely a place as any, and quite worth watching, and--
and--yes--um! The professor's eyes closed, his thoughts wandered, and
presently he, too, was asleep.

The grey light of dawn was in the sky when the slumbering pair were
startled into instant and broad wakefulness by the sound of a curious
barking kind of neigh. They had heard it but once in their lives before
this, but they both recognised it in a moment.

"By Jove!" gasped the professor, laying his hand upon Mildmay's arm and
compressing it in a vice-like grasp, "the unicorns!"

Mildmay nodded, and seizing their rifles, the pair, with infinite
caution, parted the veiling reeds just sufficiently to afford them a
glimpse in the direction from which the sound had proceeded. And there,
within half a dozen yards of them, their eager gaze fell upon a troop of
some thirty--horses? Well, they were, in appearance, like the horses
one sees represented in Greek sculpture; rather short in the body, round
in the barrel, with slim, elegantly shaped, but apparently very strong
legs, and they carried