CHAPTER II. 



A WEAPON OF NATURE. 



As NEARLY as Bob Marshall 

 could recall, he had to make his 

 way for about a mile, in order to 

 reach the camp where all mem- 

 bers of the hunting party ex- 

 pected to pass the night. Or- 

 dinarily the task of traveling this 

 would not be worth mentioning, 

 but a portion of it led through 

 the jungle, and he was obliged 

 to make quite a circuit to avoid 

 those exasperating thorny shrubs 

 which travelers have named 

 "wait-a-bit" bushes, and he 

 knew that in that tropical coun- 

 try, where the twilight is so short, darkness was likely to 

 descend before he could join his friends. 



Not far from the spot where he shot the leopard it 

 was necessary to cross a deep stream, too broad for him to 

 leap, but it was bridged 

 by a fallen tree, which he 

 had used on his way into 



the jungle and which, of course, he expected 

 to utilize on his return. 



A less experienced hunter than Bob 

 would have been almost certain to lose him- 

 self, because of the man/ changes in his 

 course, but with the aid of the little com- 

 pass which he wore as a watch charm, and 

 by keeping his bearings in mind, he was 

 generally able to avoid the dangerous blunder 

 of going astray. 



There was the stream, whose waters looked 

 of inky blackness, which he came upon at 

 the very moment he expected, and he had but a little way to go, when he 

 caught sight of the fallen tree that had served him so well on his tramp thither. 



18 



