The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1894-09-29
A TIMELY SHOT.
A Boys Adventure in the Wilds
of Africa.

The anxiety and distress of Ralph
Campbell, youthful masters mate
from the survey gun ship Petrol, were
beyond description when, on awaken
ing one morning in his quarters-ar
African hut on bank of the Senegal
river, up which he had been sent a
long distance on government business
he discovered that his little brother,
Frank, was missing.
Frank was bright, clever boy OF
twelve, who had accompanied his
brother from the ship, which was
anchored outside the bar. He was the
captains nephew, and was a general
pet and favorite aboard the vessel,
where he had been receiving instruc-
tions to fit him for naval duties.
Ralph, who now had all his cutters
crew looking for the lost lad, worried
much over the perils to which the lit
tie fellow might be exposed from
venomous serpents and wild beasts.
At length, while searching in the
thick shrubbery on the rivers bank,
the youth reached cove where, on
the night before, he had left small
canoe which he had bought of one of
the natives.
He had intended to use it for navi-
eating some of the shallow creeks
further up the river, as the cutter he
had charge of was too deep and wide
for that purpose. Startled to perceive
that the canoe was missing, a suspi-
cion of the truth broke all at once
upon his mind.
He remembered having remarked to
a sailor, in Franks hearing, that the
little craft must be brought up and
made fast to the latter the first thing
in the morning. The boy, eager to
please his brother, had probably risen
and gone, before any of the rest of the
party were awake, to fetch the canoe,
but if so, what had become of him?
Rnlph, shuddering, thought of the hid
eous crocodiles that infested this river,
while he vainly scanned it for some
sign of the lad.
Then, having resolved not to wait
for the return of his men, but to take
the cutter and go off alone in search
of his lost brother, he hurried back to
the bank in front of the hut, along
side of which the boat lay.
This boat was light, swift one,
which could be easily sculled by an
oar. There was small loaded swivel
ready for use, fixed in the bow, but its
weight would not interfere with the
speed of the craft.
The young officer was soon vigor-
ously sculling the vessel on its way,
going with the tide, as he thought
that Frank would have been apt to take
this course. Past lofty elevations COW
cred with shrubbery and flowers glided
the cutter, often Swallowed by the far
extending branches of huge baobab
trees that formed broad green arches
above it.
1t had rounded a peninsula full of
bloom and foliage, when the watchful
youth saw ahead of him an over
turned, broken canoe. He soon reached
it, and, by the peculiar carving on
the bow, he recognized it as the miss
ing canoe.
1t had been partly crushed-most
likely, he thought, by the teeth of
crocodile.
In dismay, he pulled Franks little
cap from a jagged projection of the
broken wood on which it was caught.
The dreadful truth forced itself on his
mind.
The lad had been pursued by the
monster that had destroyed the canoe.
He looked toward the peninsula
from which the canoe seemed to have
drifted. This peninsula, consisting of
two high, projecting banks composed
of soft rock and earth, opposite each
other, about fifteen feet apart, was
rooted by the branches of slender
trees that f1ourished in wild Iuxuriance
on both banks.
The trunks of these trees slanted so !
that their boughs intermingled and
were so thickly interviewer with vines |
that they formed dense canopy of |
leaves and blossoms over the open |
space beneath, which thus resembled
sort of long water cavern.
Ralph directed the cutter to this
cavern, and, looking through the green
archway into the partial obscurity be-
yond, he beheld sight well calculated
to arouse apprehension.
In the back part of the cavern, lying
in a shallow, among sandbanks that
partially concealed it, was large
with its head raised and
thrown back and its horrible jaws wide
open, while its eyes were strained, as
4 turned up toward some elevated
point
Gazing in the same direction, Ralph
was startled to see, about ten feet
lbove those hideous jaws, the form OF
lis little brother, lying, with pale face
nd closed ewes. on the narrow shelf