xertions, however, I at last threw it in,
then I got another ready, but that tumbled down at my feet, and a third
slipped from my fingers, and then my arm fell down powerless by my side.
How long I slept I do not know. I dreamed over all the scenes I had
witnessed since I came to the island, confusing and exaggerating them in
the most extraordinary manner. I was galloping away on the backs of
wild elephants, charging huge boars, and tweaking ferocious bears by the
nose, while I had seized a huge boa-constrictor by the tail, and was
going away after him at the rate of some twenty miles an hour. This
sort of work continued with various kaleidoscopic changes during the
remainder of that trying night. Nowell, and Alfred, and Solon came into
the scene. Nowell was riding on a wild buffalo; Alfred had mounted on
the shoulders of a bear; and Solon, with the greatest gravity, was
astraddle on, the back of a monster crocodile, to which Saint George's
green dragon was a mere pigmy, when the crocodile took it into his head
to plunge into the sea, at which Solon remonstrated and barked
vehemently.

I awoke with a start, and looking up, I saw a big leopard which had with
a bound alighted not six feet from me, while my faithful Solon was
standing over me tugging at my clothes and barking furiously at the
leopard. The brute was preparing for another spring. He had
providentially missed me with the first he made. I felt for my rifle,
which I had placed by my side, but I dared not take my eyes off the
creature for a moment, lest he should be upon me. My heart gave a jump
when I found my rifle, and knowing that it was now all ready, brought it
to my shoulder ready to fire. I all the time kept my eyes intently
fixed on the leopard, for I was certain that in so doing lay my best
chance of escape. The creature was in the very act of springing
forward. Not a moment was to be lost. Aiming directly at his head, I
fired. Onward he came with a snarl and a bound, which brought him to
the spot where I had been sitting; but as I fired, I leaped aside behind
the tree, and he fell over among the ashes of the fire, which had long
completely gone out.

It was broad daylight; the sun was shining brightly among the branches
of the trees, and the parrots were chattering, and other birds were
singing their loudest, if not very musical notes. All nature was awake,
and I felt how deeply grateful I ought to be that I was still alive, and
able