CAMP FIRE YARNS 337 



on my neck. My only difficulty was whether to hang 

 the head in the front hall or in the dining-room. It 

 might be rather too large for the dining-room. That 

 was all that troubled me. After three minutes, when 

 I was back on deck, the hippo still lay immovable. 

 Certainly twenty men were standing about him ; three 

 were sawing off his tail and the women were chanting 

 triumphantly a song they used to sing in the days 

 when the men were allowed to hunt and had returned 

 successful with food. 



On the bridge was Anfossi with his camera. Before 

 the men had surrounded the hippo he had had 

 time to snap one picture of it. I had just started 

 after my camera when from the blacks there was a 

 yell of alarm, of rage, and amazement. The hippo 

 had opened his eyes and raised his head. I shoved 

 the boys out of the way and, putting the gun close 

 to his head, fired point blank. I wanted to put him 

 out of pain. I need not have distressed myself. The 

 bullet affected him no more than a quinine pill. tWhat 

 seemed chiefly to concern him, what apparently had 

 brought him back to life, was the hacking at his tail. 

 That was an indignity he could not brook. 



His expression and he had a perfectly human ex- 

 pressionwas one of extreme annoyance and of some 

 slight alarm, as though he were muttering, * This is 

 no place for me 1 * and without more ado he began 

 to roll toward the river. ^Without killing some one 

 I could not again use the rifle. The boys were close 

 upon him, prying him back with the gangplank, beat- 

 ing him with sticks of firewood, trying to rope him 

 with the steel hawser. On the bridge Captain Jensen 

 and Anfossi were giving orders in Danish and Italian, 



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