and distant eminence
with silver, and causing the surface of the tarn, as it rippled lazily
under the evening breeze, to flash in circlets of light. Presently
there came a pattering of feet, as a crowd of small animals came down
from different points of the compass to quench their thirst--antelopes
with their slender legs and liquid eyes, glancing timidly round them;
elands and koodoos tossing their stately heads; gnus and buffaloes in
large herds consorting together for mutual protection; hyenas, jackals,
and zebras, plunging to the mid-leg in the cool dancing waters, and
bounding lightly away when their drought was satisfied. It was a
beautiful sight to watch them come and go, like the scenes in a
magic-lantern.

By and by, as the night deepened, the larger beasts of the forest made
their appearance. The tall graceful heads of giraffes were seen over
the tops of the bushes; tigers made their approach, singly or in pairs,
with their stealthy and noiseless step; lions stalked proudly down, as
though they felt that the sovereignty of the woods belonged by natural
right to them; occasionally the ponderous bulk of the rhinoceros might
be discerned, as he sucked in the refreshing water with his huge
misshapen snout, and retreated with a grunt of satisfaction when his
appetite had been appeased. Frank and Nick looked on with
ever-increasing interest, though it needed Kobo's oft-repeated
remonstrances to keep them from discharging their rifles at some of the
larger specimens, which came within tempting distance of their fire.

It was nearly midnight, and the shores of the pool were beset by a crowd
of animals, consisting mostly of the larger beasts of prey, when a
sudden sensation of alarm seemed to agitate the whole of the
miscellaneous group. The giraffes lifted their stately heads, snuffed
the air for a moment, and then bounded silently away; the panthers and
nylghaus moved more slowly off; the lions uttered low growls, apparently
of dissatisfaction, but nevertheless followed the retreat of the others.
Even the sullen black rhinoceros, after bending his head awhile to
listen, beat a leisurely retreat, viciously snorting as he retired. In
a few minutes the shores of the pool were as still and vacant as they
had been when the boys arrived, five or six hours before.

"What does this mean?" asked Nick in a whisper. "What have these brutes
seen or heard, to alarm them so? Are your countrymen on their way to
attack th