wn upon
their sleepless besieger! Even should they tie themselves in the tree,
to go to sleep upon such narrow couches would be out of the question.

Thus, then, they saw no prospect of either supper or sleep for that
night. But there was another appetite now annoying them far worse than
either hunger or longing for sleep. It was the desire to drink. The
rough and varied exercise which they had been compelled to take since
starting in the morning--climbing trees, and skulking through pathless
jungles--combined with the varied emotions which their repeated perils
had called up--all had a tendency to produce thirst; and thirst they now
felt in an extreme degree. It was not lessened by the sight of the
water shining beneath them. On the contrary, this only increased the
craving to an extent that was almost unendurable.

For a considerable time they bore the pain, without any hope of being
able to get relieved of it; and with the lake glistening before their
eyes under the clear sunlight, and the current gently gliding through
the straits underneath, they could realise, in something more than
fancy, what must have been the terrible sufferings of poor Tantalus.

After submitting to this infliction for a considerable length of time,
an exclamation escaping from Caspar drew upon him the attention of the
others.

"Dunder und blitzen!" cried he; "what have we been thinking about all
this time? The three of us sitting here choking with thirst, and a
river of water within our reach!"

"Within our reach? I wish it were, Caspar," rejoined Karl, in rather a
desponding tone.

"Certainly it is within our reach. Look here!"

As Caspar spoke, he held out his copper powder-flask, now nearly empty.
Karl did not yet quite comprehend him.

"What is to hinder us from letting this down," he inquired, "and drawing
it up again full of water? Nothing. Have you a piece of string about
you, Ossy?"

"Yes, sahib, I have," briskly replied the shikaree, at the same time
drawing a roll of hempen twist out of the breast of his cotton shirt,
and holding it out towards the young hunter.

"Long enough, it is," said Caspar, taking the cord; which the next
moment he attached around the neck of the flask. After pouring the
powder into his bullet-pouch, he permitted the flask to drop down till
it became immersed under the current. Allowing it to remain there, till
it had become filled with water, he drew it up again; and with a
congrat