streaming in through the interstices of the wicker slab
that constituted the door, throwing a fine silver network upon the floor
of the hut. Striking a match I looked at my watch. It was just after
one. But as the light flickered and went out I became aware of
something else. I was alone in the hut. What the deuce had become of
Falkner?

Raising myself on one elbow I called his name. No answer. I waited a
little, then got up and crawled through the low doorway.

The moon was nearly at full, and I stood looking over the screen of
woven grass which was erected in front of the door, leaving just room on
each side for a man to pass. The scene was of wonderful beauty. The
great circle of domed huts lying between their dark ring fences, the
shimmering solitude of the moonlit plain, and beyond, the far
amphitheatre of terraced cliffs rising to the twinkling stars. The calm
beauty of it all riveted me, accustomed as I was to night in the open--
do we ever get accustomed to such nights as this I wonder?--and I stood
thinking, or rather beginning to think--when--

Such a clamour broke forth upon the sweet stillness of the night as
though all the dogs in the kraal--no, in the world--had suddenly gone
stark, staring, raving mad, and then in the light of the broad moon I
saw Falkner Sewin clad in nothing but a short light shirt, sprinting as
I feel sure he never sprinted before or since. Behind him poured
forward a complete mass of curs, gaunt leggy brutes and as savage as
they make them, given the conditions of night and a fleeing unwonted
object. The ground was open in front of Majendwa's huts, so he had some
start.

"This way!" I yelled, lest he should mistake the hut, then quick as
lightning I was inside. So was he, in about a moment, and was on his
back with both heels jammed hard against the slammed-to wicker slab that
constituted the door, while the whole snarling mouthing pack was hurling
itself against the same, snapping and growling, till finding they
couldn't get in, the ill-conditioned brutes started to fight with each
other. Then a man came out of an adjacent hut and shied knobsticks into
the lot, dispersing them with many a pained yell. The while I lay there
and laughed till I cried.

"If you could only have seen yourself, Falkner, covering distance in the
moonlight and a short shirt," I managed to gasp at length. "Man, what
the deuce took you wandering about at night? They don't like that here,