firmly and strongly shut.

Suddenly an avalanche of animals appeared with a huge tumult along the
front of Will Tree.

It was only the goats and sheep and agouties. Terrified at the howling
of the wild beasts, and scenting their approach, they had fled from
their pasturage to take shelter behind the palisade.

"We must open the door!" exclaimed Godfrey.

Carefinotu nodded his head. He did not want to know the language to
understand what Godfrey meant.

The door was opened, and the frightened flock rushed into the enclosure.

But at that instant there appeared through the opening a gleaming of
eyes in the depths of the darkness which the shadow of the sequoias
rendered still more profound.

There was no time to close the enclosure!

To jump at Godfrey, seize him in spite of himself, push him into the
dwelling and slam the door, was done by Carefinotu like a flash of
lightning.

New roarings indicated that three or four wild beasts had just cleared
the palisade.

Then these horrible roarings were mingled with quite a concert of
bleatings and groanings of terror. The domestic flock were taken as in a
trap and delivered over to the clutches of the assailants.

Godfrey and Carefinotu, who had climbed up to the two small windows in
the bark of the sequoia, endeavoured to see what was passing in the
gloom.

Evidently the wild animals--tigers or lions, panthers or hyaenas, they
did not know which yet--had thrown themselves on the flock and begun
their slaughter.

At this moment, Tartlet, in a paroxysm of blind terror, seized one of
the muskets, and would have taken a chance shot out of one of the
windows.

Godfrey stopped him.

"No!" said he. "In this darkness our shots will be lost, and we must not
waste our ammunition! Wait for daylight!"

He was right. The bullets would just as likely have struck the domestic
as the wild animals--more likely in fact, for the former were the most
numerous. To save them was now impossible. Once they were sacrificed,
the wild beasts, thoroughly gorged, might quit the enclosure before
sunrise. They would then see how to act to guard against a fresh
invasion.

It was most important too, during the dark night, to avoid as much as
possible revealing to these animals the presence of human beings, whom
they might prefer to the flock. Perhaps they would thus avoid a direct
attack against Will Tree.

As Tartlet was incapable of understanding either this reasoning or any
other