they directed their
steps, for Simba had judged that it was a promising place for such sport
as Selim desired.

When the party arrived in the jungle they found the place so
delightfully cool, that they could not resist the inclination to rest
awhile and cool themselves after the labour and toil of going through
the long grass.

Simba and Selim sought the deeper shade of a mammoth and far-spreading
tamarind tree, while Baruti sought a place about thirty yards from the
tamarind, and Mombo, fatigued with the long journey over the mountains
that day, reclined under a young mimosa near the water's edge.

The coolness of the retreat, the silence which prevailed, and the
weariness which had come over their tired frames soon induced sleep.

They had not been in this condition long, before the reader, had he or
she been there surveying the scene, might have heard the faintest sound
of a ripple on the water, and have seen a crocodile's head stealthily
rise above the surface, the eyes, cold and fixed, gazing over the
slightly protuberant nose, to the spot where Mombo lay. A few minutes
the crocodile thus lay still as a heavy sappy log, more than
three-fourths buried in the water, but almost imperceptibly the heavy
body became buoyant, until the lengthy form, with great ridgy scales
marking the line of its spine, lay half uncovered. Without a movement
of the long powerful tail, and with but the faintest motion of his
heavy, broad, short legs, he propelled himself towards the shore.

A minute he rested there, still as death. One could not have sworn that
it was an animal, though one might have been sure, provided no one
suggested a cause for doubt. He then lifted his long head, but with the
same cautious movement which always characterises this stealthy,
cowardly creature of the African deeps, then his enormously long body,
until he resembled a huge log, propped up by four short pins--the legs
appeared so out of proportion. Anybody at first glance would have seen
that in the great, unwieldy form lay tremendous power. The trunk of the
largest elephant that was ever born would not equal in size that long
tail, which seemed, on account of its length and weight, slightly bent
towards the ground at the tip.

Having again halted, he moved forward silently, with a slightly waddling
motion; and as he approached the sleeping form of Mombo, his movements
were as slow and cautious as those of a leopard before springing upon
its pr