h, and so on until the impression grew on him that the
beasts and reptiles who made the noises were working slowly towards
him in a circle.

It was his first night on guard in the wilderness, and he felt the
uneasiness of the hunter who discovers how limited are his senses
compared with those of the wild creatures about him. Man, himself
the most secret, the most cunning, the most deadly, and, if truth
must be told, the most bloodthirsty, for he kills too often for the
love of killing, is the most helpless in the dark. His sense of
hearing, of sight, and of smell, fail him--thanks to a wise
provision of Nature in the interests of her other children--for if
man had the eyes of a cat, the nose of a wolf, and the hearing of a
deer, he would have cleared the earth of its creatures, who would
have had no rest night or day.

All the time, too, the river talked, as it rolled its great flood
along, sending up a soft volume of song from the innumerable sounds
produced as it washed along the islands and foamed against the rocks
of the shores. Presently, down the narrow channel, there came a rush
of water which rocked the boat, and next Venning heard close at hand
a strange noise, which he took to be made by a large animal cropping
at the river-grass. He looked about for a weapon, and, picking up
the long boat-hook, lashed his hunting-knife to the iron hook at the
top, converting it into a lance. He had read of hippos swamping
boats by seizing the narrow bows or keel in their vast jaws, and he
wished to be prepared for a possible attack. Presently the boat
again rocked as another animal took to the water, then the new-comer
dislodged the other with a snap of the jaws, and the first, with a
complaining grunt, surged down the channel. Venning could see
nothing in the inky blackness, but he knew the beast had seen the
Okapi from the short note of alarm it sounded. Immediately the alarm
was repeated. Snorts and splashes arose from all sides. Some great
beast who had been standing unnoticed within a few yards of the
boat, crashed through the bushes into the water with an uproar that
woke the sleepers.

"What is it?" cried Compton.

Mr. Hume made a dart for his rifle.

The Okapi rocked and heaved, was lifted at the bows to fall back
with a splash.

"Hippo," gasped Venning, making a drive with his weapon through the
mosquito curtains. "Got him!--no!--missed!"

"What's that you've got there, Venning?"

"Sort of harpoon."

"B