an' big enough."

This was true. They were a couple of pythons, and the larger of the
two, a female, was ten feet long; but the python is a harmless creature.

While they were talking, smoke was observed to rise from an isolated
clump of long grass and bushes not far from the banks of the river, much
to the annoyance of Kambira, who feared that the fire might spread and
scare away the game. It was confined, however, to the place where it
began, but it had the effect of driving out a solitary buffalo that had
taken refuge in the cover. Jumbo chanced to be most directly in front
of the infuriated animal when it burst out, and to him exclusively it
directed its attentions.

Never since Jumbo was the size of Obo had that laughter-loving savage
used his lithe legs with greater energy than on this occasion. An
ostrich might have envied him as he rushed towards the river, into which
he sprang headlong when the buffalo was barely six feet behind him.

Of course Harold fired, as well as Disco, and both shots told, as also a
spear from Kambira, nevertheless the animal turned abruptly on seeing
Jumbo disappear, and charged furiously up the bank, scattering its
enemies right and left. Harold fired again at little more than fifty
yards off, and heard the bullet thud as it went in just behind the
shoulder, yet strange to say, it seemed to have no other effect than to
rouse the brute to greater wrath, and two more bullets failed to bring
him down.

This toughness of the buffalo is by no means uncommon, but different
animals vary much in their tenacity of life. Some fall at once to the
first well-directed shot; others die hard. The animal the hunters were
now in pursuit of, or rather which was in pursuit of the hunters, seemed
to be of the latter class. Harold fired another shot from behind a
tree, having loaded with a shell-bullet, which exploded on hitting the
creature's ribs. It fell, much to the satisfaction of Disco, of whom it
happened to be in pursuit at the time. The seaman at once stopped and
began to reload, and the natives came running forward, when Antonio, who
had climbed a tree to be out of harm's way, slipped down and ran with
great bravery up to the prostrate animal.

Just as he reached it the buffalo sprang up with the activity of a cat,
and charged him. Antonio turned and ran with such rapidity that his
little legs became almost invisible, like those of a sparrow in a hurry.
He gained a tree, and had