This, too, was impossible; and Wyzinski was in the act of explaining why, when a loud clamour was heard among the natives, who were busy on the sandy bank below cutting up the hippopotamus. The excitement seemed to communicate itself to the boatmen, and, walking to the entrance, Dom Assevedo called out, "Come here, Senhora, there is a sight seldom seen." Looking down the stream, which was rolling slowly on its course towards the sea, between banks where the palmyra and cocoa-palms grew in clumps, seven elephants were swimming the river. With their trunks raised high in the air, and their huge black bodies rolling from side to side, the animals, notwithstanding their tremendous bulk, seemed to move with apparent ease and pleasure to themselves. "They are heading right for the island at the mouth of the Shire!" exclaimed Hughes, all the spirit of the old shikaree reviving at the sight. "Something must have terrified them," said Dom Assevedo; "perhaps the jungle has been fired in their rear." "There they go--one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven, all on the island," counted Hughes. Dona Isabel had stood, her hands clasped, her eyes fixed on the strange scene, a beautiful statue, the very model of mute astonishment. "If they don't break out and take to the other bank, I can show you some sport, now," exclaimed Assevedo. A few minutes of breathless watching followed, not a word being spoken, while the spiral wreaths of smoke curled up into the calm air from Dom Francisco's cigarette. All eyes were fixed on the island. Five minutes elapsed, lengthening into ten, and the elephants had not reappeared. "Do any of you gentlemen speak Kaffir?" inquired Assevedo. "I do," replied Wyzinski; "at least the Zulu tongue." "Good; then do me the favour to go to the men on the river bank. Tell them you come from me, use my name, and let them get their boats together, and join us in our hunt. Senhor de Maxara, will you order your men to get your boat ready?" "Surely you will take me with you?" asked Isabel. "Fair Senhora, there is danger." "And have I not seen the bull fights of Seville?" asked the girl, her eyes flashing fire. "Let me be able to say when I return to my country, that I have also seen the African elephant hunted." "The animals are sure to take up the river banks for the forest land. If your boat is large enough to take my pony across, there can be no reason to say no," replied Assevedo.