7O A WONDERFUL PERFORMANCE. 



was not seriously injured, while Jack Harvey and Bob Marshall, who had re- 

 mounted their ponies, the lad having gathered up the gun and horse of his cousin 

 on the way, galloped up, relieved beyond measure to find how well the whole party 

 had escaped the serious peril that threatened them. 



Mutual congratulations followed, and Pongo fairly blushed at the compliments 

 of his deftness in throwing the singular Australian weapon. The modest fellow 

 trotted some distance away to recover the boomerang, which he valued too highly 

 to lose. 



"It's my opinion," remarked the Texan, when the native returned, "that we've 

 all got a better opinion of the confounded ostrich than ever before. I was never 

 yanked out of the saddle till now, though I came pretty near it once." 



" When was that ? " asked Bob, who, like his cousin, was always interested in 

 the reminiscences of the Texan. 



" The time I was out with General Crook after Geronimo and his murderers. 

 One moonlight night, when I was scouting in the Mogollon Mountains, an Apache 

 whirled a lasso over my head and had me half out of the stirrups, before I could 

 cut the rope and let moonlight through him with my Winchester." 



"The ostrich beat the Apache," remarked Bob, with a smile. 



"You may well say that : it was lucky I hadn't on my Sunday clothes, for they 

 would have been ruined, though I settled with him for the way he used me." 



" You seem to have had your hands full," remarked Dick, looking at his cousin. 



" Yes ; my customer let me have a kick that a mule would envy ; if it hadn't been 

 for my gun, that parried the blow, he would have staved my breast in." 



" Never forget, ostrich kick this way," said Pongo, striking forward with his foot ; 

 " don't get before him." 



"I don't think I'm ever likely to forget it," replied Bob, rubbing his shoulder; 

 " the fact of it is I knew it before, for one day, last summer, when Mr. Barnum was 

 telling me something about his largest ostrich, the fellow kicked at us in the same 

 way, and Mr. Barnum referred to the peculiarity." 



While this conversation was under way, our friends had adjusted themselves in 

 their saddles, and " taken an account of stock," so to speak, while Pongo stood 

 near, ready to accompany them to camp. 



But the horsemen noticed that he was gazing off over the plain as though he 

 saw an object which interested him. 



Peering in the same direction, all observed something whose nature neither of 

 the three could determine. It resembled a curiously formed animal, approaching 

 at a moderate gait, evidently with the purpose of joining them. 



"What in the name of creation is it any way?" asked Jack, who, shading his 

 eyes with his hand, looked long and earnestly at the remarkable creature. 



" I can't guess," replied Dick, who, like Bob, was gazing across the plain, which 

 was quite sandy, at a distance of less than a mile. " It looks like an anjmal with a 

 humped back that is walking on its hind legs." 



It was evident, from the peculiar smile on the face of the Bushman, that he pene- 



