ng
and riving the flesh, but stopping now and then to growl savagely at
each other. Just then, Hughes caught a faint report, and the noise of
the shot gun being even at that distance easily distinguished from the
sharper crack of the rifle, it told him that the missionary was as yet
safe and far away, the report coming to his ears only as a distant echo.

Thinking it better to leave the animals to feed, he and Masheesh watched
them. Half an hour passed, the flesh being nearly gone, and a few of
the larger bones only remaining. The ducks were sailing about the
canoe, the birds gliding here and there; but sunset was approaching, and
it became absolutely necessary to get rid of them. Leaning his rifle
across the slight gunwale, Hughes took a steady aim. Just in front of
him sat a great lion, with the last remnants of the buck's forequarters
flung over his paws, crunching at the bones. The report rang out,
startling the whole crew, but whether from nervousness, or from some
motion of the boat, he knew not, the shot missed; the startled animals,
after gazing for a moment, trotted deliberately off, Hughes firing
another barrel after them. One of them turned at the second shot,
growling fiercely, then the whole disappeared in the cover, while the
ring of the shot gun was heard about a mile away, replying to that from
the river. The report came from a direction exactly opposite to that in
which the lions had disappeared. A quarter of an hour later the long
plaintive cry of the Australian bushranger was heard and replied to, and
then Wyzinski made his appearance, breaking his way through the bush,
his dress torn, and about thirty different kinds of birds dangling round
his waist. To his great surprise, Hughes rushed forward and shook him
by the hand.

"Why, what's the matter?" he asked.

"Matter enough; have you seen any lions?"

"I have not seen anything except these birds, some snakes, and a great
many different kinds of monkeys, some of them very large."

"Where's Noti?" was the next question, "I'm sure I don't know," replied
the missionary. "He left me to follow a caracal."

"Did you hear any lions about?"

"No, nor was I likely; that beast does not ramble during the day. I saw
great quantities of monkeys, I repeat."

Hughes told his tale, and the full danger of Noti's situation was
realised. Night, too, was now falling. The three set to work to
collect brushwood, and the shot gun soon procured them so