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 perpendicularly into the pool
with the speed of an arrow. What river-fiend answered to the
summons? In an instant an enormous pair of open jaws appeared,
followed by the ungainly head and form of the furious
hippopotamus, who, springing half out of the water, lashed the
river into foam, and, disdaining the concealment of the deep
pool, he charged straight up the violent rapids. With
extraordinary power he breasted the descending stream; gaining a
footing in the rapids, about five feet deep, he ploughed his way
against the broken waves, sending them in showers of spray upon
all sides, and upon gaining 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 nabbuk jungle.
I never could have imagined that so unwieldy an animal could have
exhibited such speed; no man would have had a chance of escape,
and it was fortunate for our old Neptune that he was secure upon
the high ledge of rock, for if he had been in the path of the
infuriated beast.
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