ou sleep, when
you eat, when you sit you sit in wet, when you stand the water runs
off; wet, all wet in the rains down in the woods."

"Ugh!" said Venning, with a shudder; and Compton put on another
stick.

"We will see," said the Hunter.

They sat in silence, pondering over this new source of worry, then
turned in to sleep. They slept heavily, having taken great care
first of all to block up the entrance to the underground passage,
and as they dropped off to sleep, they heard the women chanting
still in the village below. The fire glowed red in the entrance,
making the roof look like beaten gold, but the air blew chill, and
the sleepers were restless. A hand would reach out to the firewood
for another log, or to tuck the blankets under the body, so that the
cold could not sift under.

The jackal was as weary as the rest. Several times he ran to the
entrance to look out with pricked ears, then back again to stare
into a sleepy face; but as his human companions gradually sank into
heavy sleep, he crouched on the floor with his sharp nose resting
between his forepaws, the one sound, the other bandaged.

CHAPTER XXV

THE CRY IN THE NIGHT

As the fire-sticks snapped under the heat, the jackal would open his
yellow eyes and start back with his gaze fixed inquiringly on the
fire, whose mystery he could never solve. One of these starts roused
Venning, who, seeing the cause, threw out a hand and drew the animal
to him. He felt nervous, and the company of the jackal comforted
him, and the jackal in its turn forgot its uneasiness in the warmth
of the blankets. With a little sigh it curled up and went to sleep.

The boy was the only one awake, and out in the wide space beyond he
heard a voice calling--

"Ngonyama'"

He held his breath, and his throat grew very dry, for it was the
voice he had heard in the cavern, only sad this time, and not
mocking as before.

"Ngonyama!--yama!" It came thin and melancholy, with a long
lingering on the last syllables.

He put his hand out to rouse Mr. Hume, then drew it back ashamed of
his fancies; but the movement awoke the jackal. It lifted its head,
snuffed the air, then sprang up with the ruff on its neck erect, and
its sharp white teeth gleaming. Several moments it stood so, then
with many a look out, curled itself up again.

Venning had watched it breathlessly, now he patted it to sleep, and
dozed off himself, only to wake up in a violent tremble, with that
sound quiv