Something was moving in the jungle. They heard distinctly a quick, panting sound, coming nearer and nearer.
"There!" cried Crouch. "Shoot!"
He pointed down the tunnel, in the direction they had come. Max turned, and beheld the head of a great beast thrust through the leaves of some creeping plant that bound the trunks of two trees together in a kind of lattice-work.
It is unfortunate that the mind cannot retain a complete recollection of scenes that have momentarily impressed us. Most of us, when asked to describe in every detail even the most familiar objects, fall very short of the mark. How much more so must this be the case when we look upon something for no longer than a second, and then it is no more.
Max will never forget that moment. He remembers the main features of the scene, but there were a thousand and one details, which impressed him at the time, that he is no longer able to remember.
The semi-darkness of the jungle; the moist ground whereon he stood, where multi-coloured orchids showed like little evil faces in the twilight; the tangled undergrowth; and in places, like peep-holes through which the daylight streamed, the shadows of the tall trees towering high above. The scene, in its luxury and darkness, stood for all that is savage, for all that is Africa--the country where the white man ventures at his peril. And if anything were needed to complete this strong suggestion of the wild, it was the great head and white, gleaming fangs of the unknown beast which, half invisible, seemed as if it were the unholy spirit of the place. On the spur of the moment, Max lifted his rifle and fired.
"Well done!" cried Crouch, who brushed past his elbow.
A moment later they found themselves kneeling on either side of the prostrate and lifeless figure of Gyp.
"There lies our thief," said Crouch; "and the thief's master 's not so far away."
Max felt profoundly sorry in his heart that he had killed so magnificent a creature. If the dog had hunted them, she had been told to do so by her master. The only crime which could be laid to the account of the Great Dane was obedience to Cæsar.