At this moment the shrill voice of a Muezzin sounded weirdly through the stillness of the summer night. Three times he called?, and then once again all was still. A minute or so afterwards I heard a dull tramp, as of a regiment, coming towards the place in which we were sheltered. What could it mean? I took out my watch. The hour was fifteen minutes after midnight. And then, by a sudden effort of memory, I remembered that the dear old MEEBHOY had told me that at this hour every night a crowd of fanatical priests and attendants, armed every one of them to the very teeth, came to the stable of their sacred brute in order to take him out for an hour's promenade through the groves and avenues that surround his shrine. The danger, then, was imminent. If we were discovered nothing could save us, and we should perish miserably with our prize within our grasp. My mind was instantly made up. "GANDERDOWN," I whispered; "have you ever been inside a hippopotamus?" "Never; but I was once told by a dirty little urchin to get inside a horse--why, I know not, as the attempt for a man of my size----" "Enough of that, GANDERDOWN; you have got somehow or other to get inside this hippopotamus." "All right," said the major, who, as I have said, never displayed the least trace of emotion; "all right. I suppose I had better take my boots off," and, suiting the action to the words, he did so. "Stay," I murmured; "have you a long leather thong?" "Here is one," he replied, producing it; "I never travel without one. You never know what may come in useful." I took it from him and bade him prepare for the plunge. Nearer and nearer sounded the tramp of the advancing priests. I judged that we had exactly three minutes left, and I told GANDERDOWN that the next time the animal's jaws were open to their widest he was to go down head first, and trust to providence and me for the rest. GANDERDOWN needed no further incitement. Kissing a locket containing a specimen of his wife's hair he extended his arms above his head in correct diving attitude, and, as the gigantic mouth opened slowly, sprang forward and in a moment disappeared within this living vault. As he did so, I passed a loop of the leather thong firmly over the beast's lower jaw, fitting it in where there are gaps in the teeth. As I anticipated, he did not notice this, being entirely taken up with the surprise of receiving his human cargo. I then took the ends of the thong in my hands, and, as the step of the leading priest sounded at the door, I, too, leaped into the cavity in which GANDERDOWN had so bravely preceded me.