essly, and picked up the nearest gun, which chanced by good
fortune to be Captain Renton's rifle. Frank was a steady shot, as the
reader has already been told; but he had never fired at a mark like
this. He recalled, on the instant, what he had heard Mr Lavie say that
the only spots in a wild animal's body in which a bullet could be lodged
with the certainty of causing instant death, were the ear, the eye, and
immediately behind the shoulder, where there was a direct passage to the
heart. It was impossible to aim at either ear or shoulder in the
present instance, as the animal was standing directly facing him. The
eye, therefore, which flashed large and yellow upon him in the broad
glare of the moonlight--the eye must be his mark. He raised the rifle
and brought it down to the level of his eye, drawing trigger the moment
he had done so. It was well for him that his aim was true, and his hand
steady. As the barrel dropped to its place, the metal flashed in the
moonbeam, and its glitter seemed to rouse the creature from its
momentary torpor. It rose into the air at the very moment at which the
bullet struck it, and if the latter had not been aimed with the most
perfect accuracy, there would have been an end of the mastiff, and
probably of his master also. But the shot passed directly through the
eyeball, and lodged in the brain, causing instantaneous death. The
muscular power communicated to the limbs failed even before the leap was
accomplished. A furious roar burst from the king of the forest as he
felt the wound, but it died off abruptly, and the vast carcass fell, a
lifeless mass, within two feet of the entrance of the cavern.

CHAPTER SIX.

A SECOND VISITOR--NICK'S CLUB--A HALT--A MYSTERIOUS CRY--A NEW MODE OF
IMPRISONMENT.

The noise of the gun, and the dying roar of the lion, roused the whole
party from their slumbers; and in another minute they were standing
round the fallen monster, eagerly asking for information.

"You did that well, Frank," said the surgeon, after carefully examining
the wound; "just in the right place, and at the right moment. Half an
inch either way, or ten seconds later, and there would have been a very
different story to tell. You'll be a mighty hunter one of these days, I
expect. It's very few who have made their _debut_ with a shot like
this. But we must make sure that there are no more of them about. It's
strange that I should have forgotten the likelihood of beast