the danger,
all four fell back from the narrow trench in which they had been
standing; each as he best could retreating up the declivity of the
sand-hill.

Scarce were they able to obtain footing in their new position, when the
sounds they had heard not only became louder and nearer, but the
creature that had been causing them passed close to their feet; so close
that most of them could have touched it with their toes.

For all that, not one of the party could tell what it was; and after it
had passed, on its way down the ravine, and was once more lost to their
view amid the swirling sand, they were not a bit further advanced in
their knowledge of the strange creature that had come so near crushing
out their existence with its ponderous weight!

All that they had been able to see was a conglomeration of dark objects,
resembling the head, neck, body and limbs of some uncouth animal; while
the sounds that proceeded from it were like utterances that might have
come from some other world; for certainly they had but slight
resemblance to anything the castaways had ever heard in this, either
upon sea or land!

CHAPTER TWELVE.

THE MAHERRY.

For some length of time they stood conjecturing, the boys with clasped
hands, Old Bill near, but apart.

During this time, at intervals, they continued to hear the sounds that
had so astonished them, the stamping, the snorts and the screaming,
though they no longer saw the creature that caused them.

The sand gully opened towards the sea in a diagonal direction. It could
not be many yards to the spot where it debouched upon the level of the
beach; and the creature that had caused them such a surprise, and was
still continuing to occupy their thoughts, must have reached this level
surface, though not to suspend its exertions. Every now and then could
be heard the same repetition of dull noises, as if some animal was
kicking itself to death, varied by trumpet-like snorts and agonising
screams which could be likened to the cry of no animal upon earth.

But that the castaways knew they were on the coast of Africa, that
continent renowned for strange existences, they might have been even
more disposed to a supernatural belief in what was near them; but as the
minutes passed, and their senses began to return to them, they became
more inclined to think what they had seen, heard, and felt, might be
only some animal, a heavy quadruped, that had trampled over them in
their sleep.