And ever after he was no use in the chase of wild beasts, for the bullet had left the bones of his head in such shape about the hole whenever he was put at a swift gait he became a gigantic organ pipe and frightened the game long before we came upon it. As it was, however, the wolf was dead, and I had the honor of carrying his scalp home. The manner of his death I almost forgot to mention, for the bullet did not dispatch him. Having turned about, and the missile’s passage having made him very irritable, he made directly for me. Turning my horse to one side just before he reached me I bent low and sent my lance down his throat, catching the head as it came through and bringing up the wolf nicely impaled upon it—he being then stone dead, for the lance had passed through his heart. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ XVI _In which I retail a few extraordinary incidents occurring in my travel in a mountainous region, with which the world at large is slightly acquainted, chief among them being a midnight attack made upon me by a drove of lions and a race for life on the back of an ostrich I had hatched in the desert._ THE perusal of the preceding documents had caused me much pleasure and profit, and I feel sure the reader has been delighted with them; though I must confess I was very greatly disappointed in them in one essential, which was, that, while they detailed interesting episodes and neat little batches of history, they gave me rather a mean idea of my ancestry, which I had prized most highly as being men of capability and consequence. Except in a few instances this idea was not borne out by the documents, as I say, much to my chagrin. I had understood the marvels they had performed had been thrilling, blood-curdling, fire-eating, terror-striking, etc., and to find them so exceedingly mild when compared with my own exploits, which I shall have the pleasure hereafter to relate, was, as I say again, decidedly humiliating. The published accounts of my grandfather’s travels led me to believe that could I get at the real history of the matter there would be food for the gods, and I had found broth for the invalid. But be that as it may, there was one part of the papers which caused me to turn the thought over once or twice in my mind as to visiting the center of the earth, which I did, and my experiences during that voyage I will give you at another time. Suffice it then to say that I ended the trip by being volcanoed out, and I will recount to you what occurred immediately after my advent.