whistled, and down in the blackness of the
kloofs, right across their way, the answering bay of hunting jackals,
and the deeper voice of the striped hyena, echoed eerily upon the night.
Evelyn shuddered.

"Oh, that's all right," said Edala. "Nothing to be afraid of there--
quite the contrary. It means that our way is clear, or no animal would
be kicking up all that row. That's just what we want. Hallo--here's
our friend back again," she broke off, as a trample of hoofs, and a
quick shrill bellow, told that the bull had returned. Again Evelyn
shuddered.

"Will he attack us?" she said.

"I hope not, because this time I shall have to shoot. A charge of
Treble A. at ten yards'll split even his tough skull. But the last
thing I want to do is to loose off a shot at all. By the way, that's
old Blue Hump. He must have got cut off from the herd when they drove
it off--or cleared on his own. He's a vicious old brute, anyway."

The animal was trotting parallel with their course and every now and
then they could make out the great branching horns above the bush
sprays. But he must have grown tired of it, or feared to come to closer
quarters, for presently they Saw no more of him.

"There's a pathway here that cuts a considerable corner," said Edala.
"Whew! how cold it is."

It was, and in spite of the exercise and plentiful wrapping up, both
girls shivered. There were stealthy rustlings in the darkness of the
brake, and once a great ant-bear rushing across the road, looking pale
and uncanny in the moonlight, drew a stifled shriek from Evelyn. The
other laughed.

"They're the most harmless things on earth. Hyland and I and poor Jim
used to hunt them often at night with assegais."

Thus they travelled on, and soon Evelyn became accustomed to the
unwonted experience of walking all night across wild country in
potential peril at every step: fortunately she was in hard physical
training by now. Once Edala's quick vision had detected a puff adder
lying in the path, but a few stones hurled from a little distance, soon
drove the bloated, hissing reptile to seek safety somewhere else. Now
and again a great owl would drop down right in front of their faces, and
they could see his head turning from side to side as he sailed along on
noiseless pinions, uttering his ghostly hoot: or the `churn' of the
nightjar would echo weirdly from beneath some overhanging rock; or
again, a tiger-wolf howled, and big beetles in blund