air suspiciously as he
turned it from side to side.

"Now, Boris, my friend, you may shoot, if you will," whispered the
professor, eagerly, to his Russian friend. "That fellow is new to me; I
know him not. His head is--but, ach! you would not understand if I
explained. Wait until he turns his broadside to us, and then aim behind
the shoulder."

A few breathless moments followed, for the huge brute persisted in
facing the little party as he drank; but, at length, having quenched his
thirst, he turned to retreat into the forest depths again, and, as he
did so, Sziszkinski's hammer clicked, and, with a low, deep moaning
sigh, the great beast sank to the earth, kicked convulsively for a few
seconds, and was still.

"Good!" ejaculated von Schalckenberg; "that is a very valuable addition
to--"

He was silenced by the light pressure of Sir Reginald Elphinstone's hand
upon his arm, and turning, he saw the baronet raise his hand and point.
He looked in the direction indicated, and in a moment his frame seemed
to stiffen with eagerness as he gazed. For there, standing knee-deep in
a pool, some two hundred yards away, and quite alone, was an animal not
unlike a giraffe, but very much smaller, and with a neck that, although
not so long in proportion to its body as that of a giraffe, was still
very long. The creature was strongly silhouetted against a patch of
moon-lighted vegetation, and therefore stood out black against its
lighter background, with no indication of its markings. The outline of
it, however, was clear-cut and distinct, and as the professor continued
to gaze at it he became an interesting study of growing excitement and
agitation. He felt feverishly for the binocular glasses that he had not
brought with him, and held his breath until he could do so no longer,
letting it out suddenly with a gasp that he as suddenly checked, glaring
through his spectacles, meanwhile, as though he would fain hypnotise the
creature. Then, as it bowed its head to drink, he turned to Sir
Reginald and whispered huskily--

"Shoot, my friend, shoot! But, as you love me, don't miss; for, as I am
a sinful man, it is none other than the _okapi_!"

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

LOST!

The okapi! That strange new animal of which so much had been heard of
late in zoological and scientific circles, the existence of which had
been so absolutely asserted, and the creature itself so definitely
described, by certain travellers; but of whi