He even
plunged his hands, and then his head, into the delicious
tide--he fairly revelled in its coolness.
"But the doctor?" said Joe; "our friend, Dr. Ferguson?"
That one word recalled Kennedy to himself, and, hastily
filling a flask that he had brought with him, he started on
a run up the steps of the well.
But what was his amazement when he saw an opaque
body of enormous dimensions blocking up the passage!
Joe, who was close upon Kennedy's heels, recoiled with
him.
"We are blocked in--entrapped!"
"Impossible! What does that mean?--"
Dick had no time to finish; a terrific roar made him
only too quickly aware what foe confronted him.
"Another lion!" exclaimed Joe.
"A lioness, rather," said Kennedy. "Ah! ferocious
brute!" he added, "I'll settle you in a moment more!"
and swiftly reloaded his rifle.
In another instant he fired, but the animal had disappeared.
"Onward!" shouted Kennedy.
"No!" interposed the other, "that shot did not kill
her; her body would have rolled down the steps; she's
up there, ready to spring upon the first of us who appears,
and he would be a lost man!"
"But what are we to do? We must get out of this,
and the doctor is expecting us."
"Let us decoy the animal.
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