A second later a bullet crashed into the brain of the leopard, and then, worn out by the strain they had been under so long, they sat with their backs to the trees.
"I'm going to sleep," said Compton.
"I wonder what's become of the jackal ?" muttered Venning, drawing up his knees with a sigh of relief.
"Don't know, and don't care, for he's better off than we are.

Good night." "Good night, old chap; and it was awfully good of you to turn back." Snore! Venning yawned, and in five minutes they were both asleep in the forest, without so much as a twig to cover them.

But they were not altogether unprotected, for when they rubbed the sleep out of their eyes in the morning, they found the jackal curled up at their feet, with one ear cocked and one eye open.

But a very different jackal he was from the graceful animal they knew so well.

His body was distended to enormous proportions, and it was clear how his absence was to be accounted for.