CHAPTER XLVII. 



A CLEVER STRATAGEM. 



LL of Dick BrownelTs miseries and sufferings were forgotten the moment he 

 caught the glimmer of the camp-fire through the chilling darkness. He 

 was willing enough to receive the scolding that he knew awaited him, but 

 never was the glow of a beacon light hailed with greater gladness by the storm- 

 tossed mariner than was the twinkle which reached him through the dismal night. 



It struck the youth that he most have followed some strange paths after his 

 novel attack on the lion, for he had not gone far before he found himself tramping 

 through a lot of tall grass, apparently cf the same kind as that growing along the 

 stream that had sheltered the wild men and baboons. 



The possibility of plunging headlong into the river itself caused him some 

 uneasiness, but the listening ear could detect nothing of the roar that would have 

 been present, the gale having entirely died out. 



The storm was over. There were faint flickerings of lightning now and then, 

 but not enough to produce the faintest rumbling of thunder. No rain fell, and, 

 through the rifts of black, overhanging clouds, Dick fancied he detected the faint 

 gleam of several stars. 



Such storms as I have attempted to describe are violent, but of short duration. 

 They often inflict great damage, but, fortunately, soon expend their fury. 



Dick Brownell underwent every degree of imaginable surprise during his 

 hunting expedition in Southern Africa, but he agrees with me that none of them 

 exceeded that which came to him within a half hour after his discovery of the light 

 of the camp-fire, shining across the plain. 



The first occurrence that opened the way to the shock of astonishment was the 

 knowledge that, instead of tramping across the open country, as he had been doing 

 all along, he had entered the edge of a jungle. 



" What does this mean ? " he asked, as the limbs brushed his face. 



The puzzling fact was that the light of the camp-fire was still in plain view. 



The next shock was when he saw that the reason for this was that he was 

 within a hundred feet of the blaze which had seemed until that moment to be at an 

 indefinite distance. It was in fair view, because it was burning just beyond and 

 close to the margin of the wood, which was open to an unusual extent, so open, 

 indeed, that he had not noticed the few intervening limbs until he looked the 

 second time. 



The inevitable corollary of this discovery was that it was not the camp-fire 

 of his friends that he had approached ! 



All doubt was removed when he observed eight or ten natives, similar in some 

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