rew aside the folds of the tilt and
crouched by the waggon chest ready to spring. "Hooray! There's
somebody shouting. Now then; take hold of my hand. Let's jump
together."

There was a double thud, as the boys sprang out into the darkness.

"Now then--ready?"

"Yes," cried Dean, firmly now, as soon as he had made his desperate
plunge into danger.

"Fire!"

_Bang! Bang_!

"Again!" cried Mark, and directly after there was the repetition of the
reports and the rustling sound of replacing the empty cartridges.

"Hi, there!" came in a voice from out of the darkness, sounding distant.
"Is that you boys?"

"Yes, doctor," cried Mark. "Where's father?"

"Here, my boy. Where's your cousin?"

"I'm here, uncle."

"Good. But you two fellows ought to have stopped in the waggon."

Directly after Sir James and the doctor joined them, and a couple more
shots came from a distance, in the direction where the thundering beat
of hoofs was beginning to die away, and then shots again, followed by a
hideous snarling and roaring, as if very near at hand several lions were
quarrelling like angry cats over their prey.

"Ahoy, there!" shouted the doctor.

"Ahoy!" came from two places in the distance.

"Rally here," cried the doctor, as loud as he could shout. "Up here by
the waggon!"

This was followed by the beating of feet upon the thick grass, and all
the time the trampling of oxen grew more distant, while the savage
snarling went on and was punctuated in the darkness every now and then
by a deep-toned bark.

"This way," cried the doctor. "Come on!"

The boys' hearts beat hard at this, for the doctor's words were answered
by a chorus of snarls from what Mark judged now to be a portion of the
forest not many yards away; and involuntarily the boys raised their
rifles to their shoulders as they glanced to right and left, trying to
make out through the darkness whether the way was clear for a shot.

"Hadn't we better fire again, father?"

"No," said the doctor sharply, from close at hand. "The men are
rallying, and we may hit somebody."

"Yes," said Sir James quickly.

"And besides," continued the doctor, "if we fire at where that snarling
comes from it will be answered by a rush. The brutes can see in this
horrid darkness."

"What are they doing?" asked Dean.

"They have pulled down a bullock, boys, and they are quarrelling over
it. Can't you hear? Oh, this darkness!" cried the speaker, and he
gave--