o?" Stas asked with amazement.

"Those--killed."

"What are you talking about, Nell?"

"I am afraid! I am afraid!"

And her pallid lips began to quiver.

Silence ensued. Stas did not believe that the slain could rise from the
dead, but as it was night and their bodies lay not far away, he became
depressed in spirit; a chill passed over his back.

"What are you saying, Nell?" he repeated. "Then Dinah taught you to
fear ghosts--The dead do not--"

And he did not finish, for at that moment something awe-inspiring
occurred. Amid the stillness of the night, in the depths of the ravine,
from the direction in which the corpses lay suddenly resounded a kind
of inhuman, frightful laughter in which quivered despair, and joy, and
cruelty, and suffering, and pain, and sobbing, and derision; the
heart-rending and spasmodic laughter of the insane or condemned.

Nell screamed, and with her whole strength embraced Stas with her arms.
Stas' hair stood on end. Saba started up suddenly and began to growl.

But Kali, sitting at some distance, quietly raised his head and said
almost gleefully:

"Those are hyenas gloating over Gebhr and the lion--"

II

The great events of the preceding day and the sensations of the night
so tired out Stas and Nell that when finally slumber overcame them they
fell into a deep sleep, and the little girl did nor appear outside the
tent until about noon-time. Stas rose somewhat earlier from a
saddle-cloth spread near the camp-fire, and in expectation of his
little companion he ordered Kali to prepare a breakfast, which in view
of the late hour was to form at the same time their dinner.

The bright light of the day dispelled the terrors of the night; both
awoke not only well rested, but refreshed in spirit. Nell looked better
and felt stronger. As both wanted to ride away as far as possible from
the place where the slain Sudanese were lying, immediately after the
refreshments they mounted their horses and moved ahead.

At that time of the day all travelers in Africa stop for the noon rest,
and even caravans composed of negroes seek shelter under the shade of
great trees; for they are the so-called white hours, hours of heat and
silence, during which the sun broils unmercifully and, looking from
above, seems to seek whom to slay. Every beast at such times burrows
itself in the greatest thicket, the song of birds ceases, the buzz of
insects stops, and all nature falls into silence, secreting i