CHAPTER LIX. 



A STROKE OF FORTUNE. 



was the golden opportunity for the repeating rifles with which the 

 m. boys were furnished. Diedrick had emptied the shot-gun into the head of 

 * the beast, but he made no attempt to use the weapon further, leaving his 

 companions to complete the work so well begun. 



" What are you doing ? " called Jack Harvey from the shore ; " why don't you 

 fill her full of lead?" 



And that is precisely what Bob and Dick proceeded to do in the most approved 

 fashion. The shot that the former sent into the eye of the animal bewildered her 

 so that the charge which she made upon the raft miscarried, she ploughing by it 

 in the most grotesque manner. 



Realizing her failure, she turned again, but by this time her fearful wounds pro- 

 duced their inevitable effect, and becoming suddenly motionless, she disappeared 

 beneath the surface like the sinking of an enormous diving-bell. 



The behemoth was dead and was seen no more. 



During this flurry, our two friends on the shore were in what may be called a 

 state of mind. They had set out with the expectation of taking charge of the hip- 

 popotamus business, and yet, through the rush of circumstances, it had passed 

 wholly out of their hands and was pushed to an issue by the boys and natives. 



" I think, Carl," said the Texan, stamping back and forth, half exasperated from 

 his enforced idleness, " that there must be more of those critters 'round here, since 

 they herd together, and I don't propose to let the folks out there have all the fun." 



" It was that shot of mine that played the mischief," replied the director, " but 

 things are so lively out on the stream, that I'm afraid something may have gone 

 wrong with the boys." 



" Have no fear," was the reassuring response of the Texan, who, as he afterward 

 stated, was without the least concern for his young friends : " they have their guns, 

 and, from the way things sound, they are using them to advantage." 



" There is no telling how things may turn out helloa I what's this? " 



The exclamation of Mr. Godkin was caused by the appearance of a man's head 

 on the surface of the water rapidly approaching. 



" Is that you, Pongo ? " asked the director, stepping to the edge of the stream 

 and peering out in the gloom. 



"It me Pongo," was the answer, and the next minute the Bushman rose to 

 his feet and walked ashore. 



" Why didn't you come in the dug-out ? " was the query of Jack Harvey, who sus- 

 pected what had taken place. 



