both the earth and the sky from my sight.

Though I could not for some time tell the effect of the shot--neither
could Ben--on account of the thick smoke, our ears were gratified by the
sounds that reached us from below. The voice of the lion seemed all at
once to have changed its triumphant roaring to a tone that expressed
agony and fear, and we were convinced that he was badly hurt. We could
hear the whining, and snorting, and screaming, like that made by a cat
in the agonies of death, but far hoarser and louder.

All this lasted only a few seconds--while the sulphurous vapour clung
around the tree--and just as this was wafted aside, and we could see the
ground below, the noises ceased, and to our great joy we beheld the
enormous brute stretched upon his side motionless and dead!

We waited awhile, to be sure of this fact before descending from our
safe perch; but as we watched the brute and saw that he stirred not, we
at length felt assured, and leaped down to the earth.

True enough, he was quite dead. The iron ramrod had done the business,
and was still sticking half-buried in his breast--its point having
penetrated to the heart.

A royal lion was game enough in one day. So thought Ben; and, as we had
no desire to procure a second one in the same way, we agreed that this
should be the termination of our hunt.

Ben, however, was not going to return without taking back some trophies
of his hunter-skill; and, therefore, after we had obtained water to
assuage our thirst, we returned to the spot, and under the shade of the
great dragon-tree stripped the lion of his skin.

With this trophy borne upon Ben's shoulders, while I carried the "Queen
Anne," we wended our way toward the _Pandora_.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

It was the intention of Ben and myself to return direct to the barque.
We were quite satisfied with our day's hunting, and wanted no more game.

We set out therefore in a direction, that as we thought would bring us
back to the river.

We had not gone far, however, when we began to fancy that we were going
in the wrong course, and then we turned aside from it and took another.

This new one we followed for more than a mile, but, as no river
appeared, we believed we were now certainly going the wrong way, and
once more turned back.

After walking another mile or two, without coming to the river, we began
to think we were lost. At all events we had certainly lost our way, and
had not the sl