"No, Joe, but wild dogs; a famous breed, which have no scruple in attacking lions. To meet such a pack is the most fearful experience a traveler can undergo. He would be immediately torn in pieces."
"Well, it will not be Joseph who will endeavor to muzzle them," replied that pleasant youth; "after all, it is their nature, and one needn't see much of them."
All this time a dread silence was falling around little by little, under the influence of the approaching storm. It seemed as if the heavy air had become incapable of transmitting sounds; the atmosphere appeared thickened, and, like a room hung with tapestry, lost all sonorousness. The pigeons, the crested crane, the red and blue jays, the mocking birds, the moucherolles, hid themselves in the leafy trees. All nature betrayed the symptoms of an approaching convulsion. At nine o'clock in the evening, the "Victoria" was hanging motionless above Mséné, a large collection of villages scarcely distinguishable in the gloom. Sometimes the reflection of stray beams of light in the dark water indicated the regularly placed ditches, and, by an opening in the clouds, they could descry the dark forms of palms, tamarinds, sycamores, and the gigantic euphorbia.
"I am stifled," said the Scot, taking a full breath. "We are not moving any longer. Shall we descend?"
"But how about the storm?" said the doctor, who was not very comfortable.
"If you are afraid of being carried away by the wind, it seems to me you can do nothing else."
"The storm may not burst to-night," replied Joe; "the clouds are very high."
"That is the very reason I am hesitating to pass them; we should have to go so very high up, and lose sight of the earth, and would not know all night whether we were making any 'way,' or, if so, in what direction we were moving."
"Well, make up your mind, my dear Samuel; time presses."
"It is very annoying that the wind has dropped," said Joe; "it might have carried us out of reach of the storm."
"That is certainly to be regretted, my friends, as the clouds are very dangerous; they contain opposing currents, which may enclose us in their whirlwinds, and the light-
