"All our rifles are gone, too," said Guy suddenly. "Bildad has thrown them overboard. The crafty scoundrel feared we would shoot him for stealing the crackers, and he threw away the guns on purpose. There was method in his madness, after all." "The fiend!" hissed Canaris between his teeth. "And it was I who saved his life for this. If I only had known! If I only had left him to perish in the lake!" "Hark! I hear rapids or something ahead," said Guy at that instant. For the moment this diverted their attention from poor Bildad, who lay in a half stupor unconscious of all that was taking place. The sound that Guy had heard was close at hand, and in a moment the raft was flung heavily upon a sand bar and remained there motionless. The channel made a sudden, sharp turn, and the current, being too swift to round the sharp angle, dashed with a sullen splash against the shore. Guy grasped the torch and staggered forward on the beach. It was the first time his feet had touched land for more than a week. "Here is shore and rocks beyond it," he exclaimed. "I see a cavern, too, in the face of the cliff." He continued to move forward with uplifted torch. Suddenly he paused and uttered a loud cry. A terrible roar echoed from the cavern a second later, and then with a single bound a great tawny beast sprang out of the shadows, and striking Guy to the earth with one blow of his mighty paw, threw himself furiously on the prostrate body. CHAPTER XXXV. BILDAD DRINKS NEW LIFE. The stricken man had no time to utter another cry. The lion--for such it proved to be--paused a moment, with uplifted head, snarling angrily. The torch had been flung back a yard or more toward the water, and was spluttering on the damp sand. Guy's companions were helpless with fear and dread. Forbes alone had self-possession enough to remember that he had a revolver. It was not loaded, and he trembled so much that he could scarcely draw the shells from his pocket. "Hurry! Hurry!" whispered the colonel. "The brute may tear him apart any moment." Meanwhile Guy lay white and motionless in the grasp of the lion. Not a muscle quivered, and his eyes were closed. Suddenly, as Forbes was nervously ramming the shells into the revolver, the beast turned on his prey with a vicious growl and seized Guy's arm loosely in his mighty jaws. In another instant Chutney would have been dragged off, but help was to come from an unlooked-for source. With a single bound Bildad sprang out upon the sand, brandishing a huge spear that Canaris had brought with him from the lake. Another leap carried him within a yard or two of the lion, and the amazed spectators had a brief vision of the enraged beast quivering for a spring at the audacious African. Then the spear flashed in the torchlight, and as Bildad sprang to one side, the lion, with a mighty roar, toppled over on the sand--dead. The spear had pierced his heart.