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430 DICK SANDS, THE BOY CAPTAIN. the interior and exterior of the enclosure. Benedîct had obtaincd his freedom, but so far from caring in the least for his liberty he contînued totally absorbed in the pursuit upon which he had started. He watched with unfl^ging vigilance, and it was only when the hexapod expanded its wings as if for flight that he prepared to imprison ît in the hollow of his hand. Ail at once, however, he was taken by surprise ; a whizz and a whirr and the prize was gone ! Disappointed rathcr than despairing, Benedict raised himsclf up, and looked about him. Before long the old black speck was again flitting just above his head. Thcre was cvcry reason to hope that it would ultimately settle once more upon the ground, but on this side of the palisade thcre was a large forest a little way to the north, and it the manticora werc to get into its mass of foliage ail hope of kecping it in view would be lost, and there would be an end of the proud cxpcctation of storing it in the tin box, to bc preserved among the rcst of the entomological won d ers. After a while the insect descendcd to the carth ; it did not rest at ail, nor crawl as it had donc previously, but madc its advancc by a séries of rapid hops. This made the chase for the near-sighted naturalist a matter of great difficulty ; he put his face as close to the ground as possible, and kept starting off and stopping and starting off again with his arms extended like a swimming frog, continually making frantic clutches to find as continually that his grasp had bcen eluded. After running till he was out of brcath, and scratching his hands against the brushwood and the loliage till thcy bled, he had the mortification of feeling the insect dash past his car with what might be a défiant buzz, and finding that it was out of sight for ever. " Ungrateful hexapod ! " he cried in dismay, " I intcnded to honour you with the best place in my collection." He knew not what to do, and could not reconcile himself to the loss ; he reproached himself for not having secured the manticora at the first ; he gazed at the forest till he