I was going across the inner paddock where the fatted ostriches were."

Did you EAT ostriches, then? I did not know--"

Eat them!--often. Very nice they ARE too, properly stuffed. Well,

we--I, rather--was going across this paddock, and I saw something

standing up in the moonlight and looking at me." Mr. Hoopdriver was in a

hot perspiration now. His invention seemed to have gone limp. "Luckily

I had my father's gun with me. I was scared, though, I can tell you.

(Puff.) I just aimed at the end that I thought was the head. And let

fly. (Puff.) And over it went, you know."

Dead?"

AS dead. It was one of the luckiest shots I ever fired. And I wasn't

much over nine at the time, neither."

"I should have screamed and run away."

"There's some things you can't run away from," said Mr. Hoopdriver. "To

run would have been Death."

"I don't think I ever met a lion-killer before," she remarked, evidently

with a heightened opinion of him.

There was a pause. She seemed meditating further questions. Mr.

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The Wheels of Chance