But that would not be before the morning; so all of them, fatigued by
the extraordinary exertions of the day, finished their suppers of
broiled trunk, and went to rest under the protecting shadow of the
nwana.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE HIDEOUS HYENA.

Fatigued as they were, they would soon have fallen asleep. But they were
not permitted to do so. As they lay with closed eyes in that half-dreamy
state that precedes sleep, they were suddenly startled by strange voices
near the camp.

These voices were uttered in peals of loud laughter; and no one,
unacquainted with them, would have pronounced them to be anything else
than the voices of human beings. They exactly resembled the strong
treble produced by the laugh of a maniac negro. It seemed as if some
Bedlam of negroes had been let loose, and were approaching the spot.

I say approaching, because each moment the sounds grew clearer and
louder; and it was evident that whatever gave utterance to them was
coming nearer to the camp.

That there was more than one creature was evident--aye, and it was
equally evident that there was more than one kind of creature; for so
varied were the voices, it would have puzzled a ventriloquist to have
given imitations of them all. There was howling, and whining, and
grunting, and growling, and low melancholy moaning as of some one in
pain, and hissing, and chattering, and short, sharp intonations, as if
it were the barking of dogs, and then a moment or two of deep silence,
and again that chorus of human-like laughter, that in point of horror
and hideous suggestions surpassed all the other sounds.

You will suppose that such a wild concert must have put the camp in a
state of great alarm. Not a bit of it. Nobody was frightened in the
least--not even innocent little Trueey, nor the diminutive Jan.

Had they been strangers to these sounds, no doubt they would have been
more than frightened. They would have been terrified by them; for they
were calculated to produce such an effect upon any one to whose ears
they were new.

But Von Bloom and his family had lived too long upon the wild karoo to
be ignorant of those voices. In the howling, and chattering, and
yelping, they heard but the cries of the jackal; and they well knew the
maniac laugh of the hideous hyena.

Instead of being alarmed, and springing from their beds, they lay still
and listened--not dreading any attack from the noisy creatures.

Von Bloom and the children slept