click of Caspar's double-barrel sounding ominously in his ear,
fortunately conducted to a far different _denouement_ than that fatal
_finale_ which was so near having occurred.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

The signal of the Shikaree.

As if sent to cheer and distract their minds from the feeling of dread
awe which still held possession of them, just then the shrill whistle of
Ossaroo came pealing across the lake, reverberating in echoes from the
cliff toward which he had gone. Shortly after the signal sounded again
in a slightly different direction--showing that the shikaree had
succeeded in bagging his game, and was returning towards the hut.

On hearing the signal, Karl and Caspar regarded each other with glances
of peculiar significance.

"So, brother," said Caspar, smiling oddly as he spoke, "you see Ossaroo
with his despised bow and arrows has beaten us both. What, if either of
us had beaten him?"

"Or," replied Karl, "what if we had both beaten him? Ah! brother
Caspar," added he, shuddering as he spoke, "how near we were to making
an end of each other! It's fearful to think of it!"

"Let us think no more of it then," rejoined Caspar; "but go home at once
and see what sort of a breakfast Ossy has procured for us. I wonder
whether it be flesh or fowl."

"One or the other, no doubt," he continued, after a short pause. "Fowl,
I fancy: for as I came round the lake I heard some oddish screaming in
the direction of the cliff yonder, which was that taken by Ossaroo. It
appeared to proceed from the throat of some bird; yet such I think I
have never heard before."

"But I have," replied Karl; "I heard it also. I fancy I know the bird
that made those wild notes: and if it be one of them the shikaree has
shot, we shall have a breakfast fit for a prince, and of a kind Lucullus
delighted to indulge in. But let us obey the signal of our shikaree,
and see whether we're in such good luck."

They had already regained possession of their guns. Shouldering them,
they started forth from the glade--so near being the scene of a tragical
event--and, turning the end of the lake, walked briskly back in the
direction of the hut.

On coming within view of it, they descried the shikaree sitting upon a
stone, just by the doorway; and lying across his knee, a most beautiful
bird--by far the most beautiful that either flies in the air, swims in
the water, or walks upon the earth--the peacock. Not the half
turkey-shaped crea