190 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



spearman who took a position in the bow. 

 In the bottom of each canoe was a bundle of 

 spears. To the shaft of one of the weapons 

 was tied about forty feet of rawhide rope; the 

 other end of the rope was fastened to a large 

 chunk of wood. 



"With about two hundred of the villagers I 

 went to the high bank overlooking the scene. 

 The canoes divided and lined up about fifty 

 feet apart on each side of the spot where the 

 hippo had entered the papyrus. One canoe 

 landed some distance away and several men 

 started on a circuit to get behind the animal. 

 We could hear them thrashing about in the 

 reeds, but it was fully fifteen minutes before 

 they found the hippo and, by shouting, started 

 him toward the river. 



"As soon as the beaters gave the alarm 

 the spearmen stood up in the bows of the ca- 

 noes, each with a spear poised above his head, 

 and waited breathlessly for the brute to show 

 himself. 



"The crashing of the papyrus and the swaying 

 of the tasselled tops announced his coming; the 

 next second he broke from cover. Before he 

 could plunge into the river several of the barbed 



