326 THE CRASH OF SPLINTERING WOOD. 



true and was witnessed by his cousin and Diedrick. The youth insists (doubtless 

 with truth), that the act was in obedience to the instinctive impulse that comes 

 over man and animal alike in the crisis of extreme danger. 



He sprang to his feet at the moment the stern of the dug-out went down, because 

 the front was raised by the jaws of the hippopotamus, with the intention of leaping 

 to the raft ; but that was too far off to be reached at a single bound, and he natu- 

 rally dreaded to enter the water when the monster was so near. 



Just as the under jaw of the behemoth met the upper one, Bob sprang forward 

 and placed one foot upon her back. 



It was only for an instant that his weight rested on that extraordinary foot- 

 stool, when he made a flying leap, which carried him to the raft, his momentum 

 almost precipitating him into the water on the other side, despite the hand which 

 Diedrick threw out to check him. 



The hippopotamus has never been accused of possessing unusual intelligence, 

 and it is not to be supposed that the particular one of which I am speaking ever 

 knew that her head, for a brief space of time, bore the weight of an exceedingly 

 frightened youth. Could the creature have foreseen the act, no doubt she would 

 have opened her capacious jaws and taken him in. 



It followed, also, that in the wild confusion of the moment the monster was 

 slightly bewildered. She did not follow the Bushman when he made his desperate 

 leap, as I have already shown, nor for a minute or so did she comprehend that the 

 major portion of the party upon whom she had charged were still within her reach. 



There was no possible means of escaping the hippopotamus by flight, and 

 Diedrick was too wise to attempt it. 



" Shoot her ! shoot her ! " he called out, flinging down his pole on the raft and 

 catching up his gun. 



The excited words were yet in his mouth when Bob, taking the best aim he 

 could in the gloom, lodged a ball in the skull of the beast. Dick almost touched 

 the head when he too pulled trigger, and the Hottentot was equally prompt in dis- 

 charging his weapon. 



Thus, in the briefest possible time, two bullets and a charge of shot were fired 

 into the hippopotamus, not one of them failing to " reach home." 



But, even with such wounds, the beast would have been able to inflict fatal 

 injuries upon all three of her enemies but for the fact that the ball fired by Bob was 

 providentially directed. It went plumb into the right eye, and thus ploughed its 

 way to her brain. 



The other two shots did scarcely less damage, though they could not have been 

 so instant in their effects. As it was, she was rendered furious and partially 

 blind. She emitted a rasping grunt and charged upon the ruins of the dug-out. 

 Her impetuosity carried her almost over the crushed log, and, instead of grasp- 

 ing it in her distended jaws, her forequarters bore it under the surface and out 

 f sight. 



At that juncture she seemed to gain some idea of the true state of affairs, and, 



