lly; but meantime the flame had died out, and something
alighted with a thud just behind. He whipped round, but could see
nothing, and moved to the fire to kick some of the live coals to the
next heap. In that instant the antelope was seized and carried off
in a couple of bounds just inside the reeds, for he heard plainly
the tearing of the flesh, the snarls, the growling, and the
crunching of bones. He crouched near the fire, for it was not
pleasant to think of that stealthy approach and that bold foray, and
wondered whether the buck would satisfy the pair of fierce
creatures. The fire flared up, crackled fiercely, sending up, as
before, its fiery messengers into the air, then gradually died down
to a glowing heap; and the leopards were still at their meal,
purring now, a monstrous cat-like purr. There was comfort in it,
however, for it seemed to him to tell of hunger satisfied, and by-
and-by they indeed went off, grunting to each other. Then there
came a long spell of silence. He gathered the unburnt fragments that
fringed the two heaps of embers and piled them on one of the heaps.
They blazed up, and by the light he rearranged the other stacks of
fuel. He realized that he could easily be struck down by a leopard
if he ventured away from a fire, and he hit on the idea of building
his fires in the shape of a cross, one at the top, one at the
bottom, one on each side, and space inside for him to lie down.
Inside he made a bed of reeds, from which he could draw supplies as
they were needed. He fired the top pile, and then, after a long
wait, the bottom one, and when that had burnt down to embers, and
the night was far advanced, he stretched himself out, protected by
four smouldering heaps of ash, that glowed like four red eyes in the
dark.

He looked up at the stars for a long time as he rested in his lonely
camping-ground, and then dropped into an uneasy sleep. Something
awoke him very soon, and his eyes opened on the dark vault above. A
booming noise reached him. It was the grunt of a lion this time, but
far off--a deep monotonous sound made by the lion on the trot, with
his mouth near the ground. It was very far off, and with a sigh of
relief he closed his eyes. And then he heard the sound again, and
knew it was not the lion that had awakened him. He rose on his elbow
and peered about, but the darkness came right up to the ash-heaps,
looking white now instead of red. He placed a handful of dry reeds
on the nearest