from very passion--at the thought of being thus hunted like a wolf!

I waited until the muzzle of the hound almost met that of the pistol,
and then I fired. The dog tumbled from the log.

I saw the other close upon his heels. I aimed through the smoke, and
again pulled trigger.

The good weapon did not fail me. Again the report was followed by a
plunge.

The hounds were no longer upon the log. They had fallen right and left
into the black water below!

CHAPTER SEVENTY THREE.

THE MAN-HUNTER.

The hounds had fallen into the water--one dead, the other badly wounded.
The latter could not have escaped, as one of his legs had been struck
by the bullet, and his efforts to swim were but the throes of
desperation. In a few minutes he must have gone to the bottom; but it
was not his fate to die by drowning. It was predestined that his
howling should be brought to a termination in a far different manner.

The voice of the dog is music to the ear of the alligator. Of all other
animals, this is the favourite prey of the great saurian; and the howl
of hound or cur will attract him from any distance where it may be
heard.

Naturalists have endeavoured to explain this in a different way. They
say--and such is the fact--that the howling of a dog bears a resemblance
to the voice of the young alligator, and that the old ones are attracted
towards the spot where it is heard--the mother to protect it, and the
male parent to devour it!

This is a disputed point in natural history; but there can be no dispute
that the alligator eagerly preys upon the dog whenever an opportunity
offers--seizing the canine victim in his terrible jaws, and carrying it
off to his aqueous retreat. This he does with an air of such earnest
avidity, as to leave no doubt but that he esteems the dog a favourite
morsel.

I was not surprised, then, to see half-a-dozen of these gigantic
reptiles emerging from amid the dark tree-trunks, and hastily swimming
towards the wounded hound.

The continued howling of the latter guided them; and in a few seconds
they had surrounded the spot where he struggled, and were dashing
forward upon their victim.

A shoal of sharks could not have finished him more expeditiously. A
blow from the tail of one silenced his howling--three or four pair of
gaunt jaws closed upon him at the same time--a short scuffle ensued--
then the long bony heads separated, and the huge reptiles were seen
swimming off again--each