SAVED ! SAVED ! 311 



lighted branches, which he waved around his head, leaping 

 and shouting, and whirling in a frantic manner ; he had 

 the air of a demon, but for me he was a liberating angel ! 

 The poor fellow suffered from so great an alarm that he 

 could hardly speak, and did not hear a word which I 

 said to him. 



" 'Master, load your gun ! load your gun !' he cried 

 incessantly ; < the great beast will return ; load your 

 gun!' 



"This was excellent counsel, and I followed it as 

 quickly as I could. On rising from the ground I found 

 myself as stiff as if I had been stricken with palsy. But 

 the blood was not long before it circulated anew; and 

 when I had loaded my gun, we proceeded in all haste in 

 the direction of the waggons. Narcissus ran all the way 

 in front of me, with a frying-pan on his head, and a torch 

 in his right hand, leaping and shouting like a madman, 

 to keep off the wild beasts. 



"At length we reached our encampment. When I 

 had satisfied my appetite, I asked my deliverer what had 

 passed in my absence, and what means he had taken to 

 rescue me from my peril. It appeared that the poor boy 

 had endeavoured, all day, to induce my men to make an 

 effort for my deliverance. As I have told you, they made 

 an attempt in the morning, but their courage failed them. 

 In the evening Narcissus resolved on venturing by him- 

 self alone, and for this purpose resorted to an ingenious 

 device. He took one of my large frying-pans, and 

 covered the bottom of it with a layer of gunpowder, 

 sufficiently moistened to prevent it from burning rapidly ; 

 on the top of this he piled some straw ; poured into the 

 middle of it a little dry powder ; and topped up the 



