agoon; but the illumination was too brief to leave anything more than
the most vague impression of those forms upon the retina of the
observers. The glimpse, however, transient as it was, revealed enough
to stimulate their interest and curiosity to the highest pitch, and the
two friends, with their rifles grasped ready for instant action, sprang
to their feet and stood eagerly awaiting further revelation with the
next flash of lightning, while the Indians, cowering round the roaring
fire on the summit of the knoll, were visibly suffering the extremity of
terror.

Then, while the two friends stood together awaiting the coming of
another lightning flash, with King Cole quivering and shivering at their
feet, a huge shape, elusively revealed in the flickering firelight,
slowly emerged from the intense darkness overshadowing the lagoon,
ponderously splashing through the shallows toward the beach--and toward
the two white men, a pair of enormous eyes, glistening in the uncertain
light of the flames, being all that could be distinctly seen. The
thing--whatever it may have been--was not more than ten yards distant
when first seen, and there was a gleam of such deadly malignancy in
those two glistening eyes, and a suggestion of such implacable purpose
in the ponderous movement of the imperfectly seen bulk, that Earle and
Dick, taken completely unawares by its sudden appearance, incontinently
flung up their rifles and fired, at the precise moment that King Cole,
utterly demoralised by the weird apparition, sprang to his feet and
fled, snarling, to the rear. The two rifles spoke as one, and instantly
following the whip-like reports, the double clap of the bullets was
heard--not a dull sound like that of a bullet striking yielding flesh,
but a sharp crack, suggesting the impingement of lead upon unyielding
bone; there was a frightful bellowing roar, a terrific splash, the spray
of which flew over and far beyond the two white men, and the thing was
gone.

"Well, `shiver my timbers!' as you sailors are supposed to remark,"
exclaimed Earle in tones of ineffable disgust. "If that doesn't beat
the band! Oh, Dick Cavendish--and Wilfrid Earle, you--you twenty-volume
unabridged fools, why on earth couldn't you have waited another two or
three seconds before shootin' and so have made sure of getting the
brute? Kick me, Dick, and I'll kick you, for we both deserve it! It
was the chance of a lifetime, and we flung it away by being ove