ds we wandered here and there to no
purpose. At length we separated, and took up our stations upon
different knolls to watch the patina and to listen.

The hill upon which I stood commanded an extensive view of the patina,
while the broad river flowed at the base, after its exit from the
jungle. I had been only a few minutes at my post when I observed, at
about six hundred yards distant, a strong ripple in the river like the
letter V, and it immediately struck me that an elk had come down the
river from the jungle and was swimming down the stream. This was soon
proved to be the case, as I saw the head of a doe elk in the acute
angle of the ripple.

I had the greyhounds with me, "Lucifer," "Lena," "Hecate" and "Bran,"
and I ran down the hill with these dogs, hoping to get them a view of
her as she landed on the patina. I had several bogs and hollows to
cross, and I accordingly lost sight of the elk; but upon arriving at
the spot where I imagined the elk would land, I saw her going off
across the patina, a quarter of a mile away. The greyhounds saw her,
and away they flew over the short grass, while the pack began to appear
from the jungle, having come down to the halloo that I had given on
first seeing the elk swimming down the river.

The elk seemed determined to give a beautiful course for, instead of
pushing straight for the jungle, she made a great circuit on the
patina, as though in the endeavor to make once more for the river. The
long-legged ones were going at a tremendous pace, and, being fresh,
they rapidly overhauled her; gradually the distance between them
diminished, and at length they had a fair course down a gentle
inclination which led toward the river. Here the greyhounds soon made
an end of the hunt; their game was within a hundred yards, going at top
speed: but it was all up with the elk; the pace was too good, and they
ran into her and pulled her down just as the other hounds had come down
upon my scent.

We were cutting up the elk, when we presently heard old Bluebeard's
voice far away in the jungle, and, thinking that he might perhaps be
running another elk, we ran to a hill which overlooked the river and
kept a bright look-out. We soon discovered that he was true upon the
same game, and we watched his plan of hunting, being anxious to see
whether he could hunt up an elk that had kept to water for so long a
time.

On his entrance to the patina by the river's bank he immediately took
to w