en air.

The first sight that greeted him was that of about a dozen fires
arranged in a circle round about the tiny camp, in the ruddy-yellow,
flickering glare of which he saw Mafuta, Jantje, and 'Nkuku flitting
hither and thither, tending the fires and feeding them from an enormous
stack of thorns and branches piled up near the wagon, while Ramoo Samee,
the Indian groom, stood with the horses, talking to them, caressing
them, and soothing their excitement by every means in his power. Most
of the oxen, instead of lying down, were on their feet, their tails
swishing agitatedly from side to side, their heads turning quickly this
way and that, their ears twitching, their nostrils distended, sniffing
the air, their hoofs stamping the earth impatiently, while their eyes
glowed and shone in the light of the fires, and ever and anon one or
another of them would throw up his head and give vent to a low, moaning
bellow, which told, as eloquently as words, their state of terror. As
for the dogs, they were all huddled together beneath the wagon,
shivering with fear, their tails between their legs, and their lips
drawn back, revealing their fangs, in a sort of snarling grin. Leo was
the only animal who did not seem very greatly perturbed, but even he was
awake, and lay crouching at the extreme end of his tether, his eyes
lambently aglow, and his tail softly beating the earth now and then.

"Ho there, Mafuta!" called Dick, as he stood taking in the scene and
admiring the generally romantic effect of it all--the glowing fires, the
wavering columns of smoke, the uneasy animals, the flitting figures, the
great bulk of the wagon with its white canvas tent aglow with the
firelight, and the mellow stars raining down their soft radiance; "what
is all the disturbance about?"

"Lions, baas," answered the Kafir as he paused for a moment, his arms
filled with a great bundle of branches which he was carrying to the
fires, and his great bronze body shining with perspiration; "we are
beset by them; and if the fires were allowed to die down they would rush
in upon us, and kill or stampede the whole of the oxen and horses. See
there--and there--and there," he added, pointing into the darkness
beyond the glow of the fires.

Dick looked, but could at first see nothing, his eyes as yet being
dazzled by the light of the flames, but presently, looking in the
direction toward which Mafuta pointed, he caught sight of first one pair
of greenishyell