you think your mother was a lady?" asked Percy.

"I am certain of it," answered Lionel; "and a very charming lady, too.
I am as sure of that as I am of my own existence."

While they were speaking, Gozo, who had been looking about him, cried
out in a low voice, pointing to the river, "See, see!"

As they sat up, they observed a troop of elephants approaching the ford
from the opposite side.

"We must try and get a shot at one of those fellows," exclaimed Denis,
looking round to ascertain where the horses were feeding. Satisfied
that they were well away from the track the elephants were likely to
take, he began creeping along towards some bushes close to the river, at
no great distance from the ford.

"The young master knows what he is about," whispered Gozo to Lionel, as
they followed behind Percy, who had kept close to Denis.

They reached the bush without the elephants having observed them. The
animals came on, and arranged themselves along the bank, some going into
the ford, while others kept on dry ground, near enough to dip their
trunks into the water. Having satisfied their thirst, they commenced
squirting the water over their backs, so as to give themselves a
pleasant shower bath that hot day, appearing to be in no hurry to
proceed. The party in ambush began to fear that they would move back
the way they had come, and that there would be no chance of getting a
shot at them.

"The time is passing, and we ought to be on our way to camp," whispered
Percy. "Would it not be better to give up the chance of killing an
elephant to-day? We could not carry home the tusks, and it would be a
long distance to send for them."

"Hendricks won't mind that. We might carry them between us part of the
way, and they are too valuable to be lost," answered Denis; "but see,
what is that fellow about?"

He pointed to one of the elephants who had gone farther into the ford
than the rest. He was slowly moving across; now he stopped and looked
back at his companions, then he went on again: from the way he lifted
his legs it was evident that he was dragging something attached to one
of them. Another elephant followed the first, the largest in the herd.
As the former got into the more shallow water, near the bank where the
young hunters lay concealed, what was their astonishment to perceive
that he had a huge crocodile clinging to his leg, just below the knee!
The saurian seemed to have fixed its sharp teeth so securely i