Armed with this tool, I walked up to Djek's shed, and, in the most harsh and brutal voice I could command, bade her come out. She moved in the shed, but hesitated. I repeated the command still more repulsively, and out she came towards me very slowly.

13. With beasts such as lions, tigers, and elephants, great promptitude is the thing. Think for them! Don't give them time to think, or their thoughts may be evil. I had learned this much; so I introduced myself by driving the steel into Djek's ribs, and then hooking her ear, while Pippin looked down from a first-story window. If Djek had known how my heart was beating she would have killed me then and there; but, observing no hesitation on my part, she took it all as a matter of course, and walked with me like a lamb. I found myself alone with her on the road, and fourteen miles of it before us. It was a serious situation, but I was ripe for it now. All the old women's stories and traditions about an elephant's character had been driven out of me by experience, and washed out with blood. I had fathomed Elliot's art; I had got what the French call the riddle-key of Djek, and that key was "steel!"

14. On we marched, the best of friends. There were a number of little hills on the road, and, as we mounted one, a figure used to appear behind us on the crest of the last between us and the sky. This was the gallant Pippin, solicitous for his friend's fate, but desirous of not partaking of it if adverse. And still the worthy Djek and I marched on the best of friends. About a mile out of the town she put out her trunk, and tried to curl it round me in a caressing way. I met this overture by driving the steel into her till the blood squirted out of her. If I had not, the siren.

would have killed me in the course of the next five minutes.

15. Whenever she relaxed her speed I drove the steel into her. When the afternoon sun smiled gloriously on us, and the poor thing felt nature stir in her heart, and began to frisk in her awful, clumsy way, pounding the great globe, I drove the steel into her. If I had not, I should not be here to relate this sprightly narrative.

16. Meantime, her stage-manager and financier were in great distress and anxiety. Four o'clock, and no elephant. At last they got so frightened, they came out to meet us; and presently, to their amazement and delight, Djek strode up with her new general. Their ecstasy was great to think that the whole business was no longer at a drunkard's mercy.

17. "But how did you manage? How ever did ye win her heart?"

"With this," said I, and showed them the bloody steel.

By these means I rose from mademoiselle's slave to be her friend and companion.

CHARLES READE.

67. THE RIVER-HORSE.

buoy'ant [boo'yant], light.

im'ple-ment, tool.

sin'ew-y, muscular.
suc'cu-lent, juicy.

1. HIPPOPOTAMI had trodden a path along the margin of the river, as these animals came out to feed shortly after dark, and traveled from pool to pool. Wherever a plot of

tangled and succulent herbage grew, there were the marks of the harrow-like teeth, that had torn and rooted up the rank grass like an agricultural implement.

2. After walking about two miles we noticed a herd of hippopotami in a pool below a rapid. This was surrounded by rocks, except upon one side where the rush of water had thrown up a bank of pebbles and sand. Our old Arab guide did not condescend to bestow the slightest attention when I pointed out these animals: they were too wide awake; but he immediately quitted the river's bed, and we followed him quietly behind the fringe of bushes upon the border, from which we carefully examined the water.

3. About half a mile below this spot, as we clambered over the intervening rocks through a gorge which formed a powerful rapid, we observed, in a small pool just below. the rapid, an immense head of a hippopotamus close to a perpendicular rock that formed a wall to the river, about six feet above the surface. At once the gravity of the old Arab disappeared, and the energy of the hunter was exhibited as he motioned us to remain, while he ran nimbly behind the thick screen of bushes for about a hundred and fifty yards below the spot where the hippo was unconsciously basking, with his ugly head above the surface. Plunging into the rapid torrent, the veteran hunter was carried some distance down the stream, but breasting the powerful current, he landed upon the rocks on the opposite side, and retiring to some distance from the river, he quickly advanced towards the spot beneath which the hippopotamus was lying.

4. I had a fine view of the scene, as I was lying concealed exactly opposite the river-horse, which had now disappeared beneath the water. The Arab stealthily approached the ledge of rock beneath which he had expected to see the head of the animal; his long sinewy arm

was raised, with the harpoon ready to strike, as he carefully advanced.

5. At length he reached the edge of the perpendicular rock; the hippo had vanished, but far from exhibiting surprise, the old Arab remained standing on the sharp ledge, unchanged in attitude. No figure of bronze could have been more rigid than that of the old river-king, as he stood erect upon the rock with the left foot advanced, and the harpoon poised in his ready right hand above his head, while in the left he held the loose coils of rope attached to the buoy.

6. For about three minutes he stood like a statue, gazing intently into the clear, deep water beneath his feet. I watched eagerly for the reappearance of the hippo. The surface of the water was still barren, when suddenly the right arm of the statue descended like lightning, and the harpoon shot with the speed and directness of an arrow into the pool. In an instant an enormous pair of open jaws appeared, followed by the ungainly head and form of the furious hippopotamus, which springing half out of the water, lashed the river into foam, and disdaining the concealment of the deep pool, charged straight up the violent rapids.

7. With extraordinary power he breasted the descending stream. Gaining a footing in the rapids, about five feet deep, he plowed his way against the broken waves, sending them in showers of spray upon all sides, and gaining the broader shallows he tore along through the water, with the buoyant float hopping behind him along the surface, until he landed from the river, started at full gallop along the dry shingly bed, and at length disappeared in the thorny jungle. I never could have imagined that so