swered from the
direction where the other hobbled pony was moving.

"Woho, my boy!" whispered West, with the blood now tingling through his
veins, and as the pony whinnied softly again West raised himself up with
his rifle in his right hand and stretched out his left for it to come in
contact with the soft warm muzzle of his pony, which pressed against it,
the poor brute uttering a low sigh. Quite a minute then passed, the two
ponies remaining motionless, and West listening with every nerve on the
strain, knowing as he did that a lion must be in very close proximity,
and fully expecting every moment that there might be a tremendous bound
and the savage brute would alight either upon him or upon one of the
poor shivering beasts.

Then, from evidently pretty close at hand, there was a low muttering
growl, the barrel of West's rifle fell into his left hand as he held the
weapon pistol-wise and fired low down in the direction of the sounds.

At the flash and in company with the report there was a yelping snarl
and a couple of angry roars in quick succession.

West fired again as nearly as he could judge where the beast would be,
and the next moment Ingleborough was kneeling by his side.

"What is it--lions?" he panted.

"Yes," whispered West, whose fingers were busy re-loading, and he
listened for the next sound, but only to hear a deep sighing breath on
either side, telling that the horses had been too much terrified to
start away, or else felt that they would be safer with their masters,
and that to try to gallop off meant the springing of a savage enemy upon
their backs.

The silence continued for nearly a minute, and then there was a vicious
snarling, apparently some fifty yards away, while without a moment's
hesitation Ingleborough raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired as
nearly as he could judge at the spot from whence the noise came. He
fired twice, the shots being so close together as almost to be like one
for a while. Then after a perceptible interval they were echoed from
the walls of a distant kopje, and again from another, before they died
away.

"That has startled the lions," said Ingleborough; "but I'm afraid it
will startle the Boers and bring them to see what's the matter."

"Yes, the lions are gone," said West. "Hark at that! Who says horses
have no sense?"

For the _crop, crop, crop_ of the browsing animals had begun again from
close at hand, and the comrades stood listening for some