t where the feline marauders had been busy over their prey was
not above sixty yards from the last waggon, and as the little party
advanced, gaining confidence from the silence that reigned, and reducing
the distance to about half, gazing searchingly the while at what looked
like a breastwork of leaves lit up by the fire, the silence seemed to be
awful, and as if moved by one impulse all stopped short at the end of
another ten yards.

"Must be gone, I think, gentlemen," whispered Buck; "but be ready to
fire, for they are treacherous beasts, and one may be lying there badly
wounded but with life enough in him to do mischief after all."

"Hadn't we better wait till daylight?" whispered the doctor.

"It will mean so long, sir," said the driver, rather gruffly. "I think
we might risk it now, Mak," he cried, and he added a few words in the
black's dialect. "He's willing, gentlemen," said the driver quietly.
"Let's all go on again."

Then slowly and cautiously the little line advanced, till all at once
the black stopped, holding his spear point low and the haft pressed into
the ground, for there was a savage roar, and a huge lion, which looked
golden, made a tremendous bound right out into the light.

Dean uttered a cry, and the brute couched, snarling fiercely, with the
boy lying beneath the monster's outstretched paws.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

WHO WATCHED THE FIRE?

"Back, Mark! Back, boy!" cried Sir James wildly. "No, no; don't
shoot," he continued.

The words were unnecessary, for the advancing men, stunned as it were by
the catastrophe, stood fast, rifle to shoulder, not daring to draw
trigger for fear of injuring the lion's prisoner; but as if deaf to his
father's command, Mark continued to advance on one side, the black on
the other, till they were close up to the great furious beast, whose
eyes were glowing like the fire reflected in them, while its horrent
mane stood up as if every hair were a separate wire of gold.

The savage brute, as if contented with having captured its prey, couched
there perfectly still, glaring at its approaching enemies as if waiting
before making its next spring, and then, exactly together, from one side
the black plunged the keen blade of his long spear into its shoulder,
while from the other Mark, thrusting forward his rifle, drew trigger not
a yard away, sending a bullet right into the monster's skull.

There was a hoarse yell, a sharp crack, the lion threw itself over
bac