dier-ants.

"We met with several other adventures during the day, and managed
somehow or other to lose our way, or we should have reached home before
nightfall. Contrary to our intentions, we had therefore to camp out for
another night. We had an ample supply of food, but no water could be
found, and we had little more than a couple of pints to divide among us,
which, though it might have been sufficient to supply an old lady with a
cup of tea, was but little to satisfy the thirsty throats of travellers
in this burning clime."

When Stanley heard of the attack made by the lion on our camp, he
declared that he must set out at once and put a stop to his
depredations. After a consultation, however, with Igubo, he agreed to
wait till the evening, when they supposed the lion would go down to a
spot near the river to drink. It was a small creek, rather, where the
banks were sufficiently low and hard to allow the animals to reach the
water without difficulty, which they could not do at many places along
the borders of the lake on account of the wide fringe of reeds and thick
underwood which encircled it.

"Is the gemsbok the only animal we have lost?"

"Oh no, indeed," cried Leo. "Poor Chico is gone!"

"What I did the lion carry him off?" asked Stanley.

"Oh no. A horrid monster of a crocodile," answered Leo. "I wish we
could punish the brute."

Igubo seemed to understand what was said. "I do it," he remarked.

"Yes," said Timbo; "he say he kill crocodile; no 'fraid of crocodile!"

How he was going to manage it, however, he did not inform us.

As may be supposed, Stanley dropped to sleep over his breakfast, and was
glad directly afterwards to go to bed. Igubo and his boys followed his
example; but after a few hours' rest, they again appeared, as fresh as
if they had not been undergoing severe exertion for a couple of days
under an African sun.

"You come and see Igubo kill de crocodile," I heard Timbo say to Leo and
Natty.

Igubo had provided himself with a piece of one of the animals which he
had brought home, and which had become no longer eatable. He had
fastened it to the end of a long rope, and his sons carried it down to
the water. Timbo and Jack, with the two boys, set off after them; and,
taking my rifle, I followed to see what would happen.

On reaching the river, Igubo threw in the meat as far as he could,
fastening the end of the rope to the trunk of a tree. Then, on his
making a sign to