"What is to be done?" cried Halliday. "If we run, it will certainly be
after us."

"We cannot run, at all events," said Boxall with less anxiety in his
tone than I should have supposed possible, though I knew him to be a
dauntless fellow. "We will keep to our right, as I proposed, and
perhaps the monster won't follow us after all. It is not likely to come
into the water to get at us."

We kept away to our right, and found the water growing shallower and
shallower. It was now but a little above our knees. I confess that I
turned my head very frequently, to see whether the monster was coming
after us. There it stood, however, in the same attitude as before--
which was some comfort, as it thus showed no inclination to act as we
had dreaded.

"What can it be?" I asked of Boxall.

"A wild beast, certainly," he answered. "I might have supposed it a
part of the rock, or some gigantic figure hewn out of it, but it is too
much like a real creature for that; and I begin to think that the mist
which hangs over the water must have given it its supernatural
magnitude. I would have said, from its shape, that it was a hyena or
jackal, but neither the one nor the other approaches to anything like it
in size."

"Whatever it was or is, it has disappeared," I exclaimed; for on looking
round once more, the monster was no longer to be seen on the top of the
hill. The water was now but a very little way above our knees, while
the ascent was much steeper than it had been.

"I only hope we shan't see the creature again on shore," said Halliday.

"We have not much further to go to reach it," observed Boxall. The last
few yards we had taken we had rapidly shoaled the water. "Thank Heaven,
we are ashore at last!" he added, as the light surf which rolled up
slowly went hissing back and left our feet uncovered. A few paces more,
and we were standing on dry sand.

"Halloa! what has become of the mountains?" exclaimed Halliday. "I
thought we were going to land on a rocky country, but I see nothing but
sand-hills around us."

Such indeed was the case. As far as our eyes could reach, we could
discern, in the moonlight, only a succession of sand-hills, rising but a
few feet above the rest of the country.

"I suspected that we should find that to be the case," observed Boxall.
"If we were to measure the rock on the top of which we saw the monster
standing, we should find that the creature's dimensions were not quite
so giganti