"Dark?"

"Yes; quite black."

Dean was wide awake now.

"Yes, everything's as black as black."

"Well, did you expect it to be white?"

"Can't you hear that dreadful noise?"

"Yes. What is it? Oh, I am so sleepy! Uncle snoring."

"There it is again!" cried Mark wildly.

"Well, I don't care," cried Dean angrily, and he dragged his blankets over his head. "Hullo! I say! There's something the matter;" and the boy now rose to his knees. "Here, where are the guns?"

"I don't know. Yes, I do," cried Mark, feeling about. "I have got one--yes--here's yours. Let's get to the door."

"No, stop. Listen!" and Dean caught his cousin by the arm. "It's a lion. I'm sure of it."

"So am I," cried Mark--"a dozen of them. Oh, Dean, Dean! Hark at the poor bullocks! They are pulling them down, and they'll be killing those ponies. Here, let go."

"What are you going to do?"

"Going outside to shoot."

"No, no; don't do that, or we shall have them springing in here."

"But--"

"There, you needn't go now. There's somebody else shooting." For a couple of reports came from somewhere in the direction of where the fire kept burning, and then another, followed by a confused noise of bellowing oxen, trampling feet, and the deep-toned, barking roar of a lion, which dominated everything else.

"Here, Mark," cried Dean in a hoa.r.s.e whisper, clinging to his cousin now tightly, "we are attacked by lions."

"Seems like it," was the reply. "Where are father and the doctor?"

"I don't know. I would say let's shout, only it would be like asking the savage animals to come."

"But we must do something. Are you loaded?" And as Mark spoke there was the sound of his raising the c.o.c.ks of his piece.

"No. My hand shakes so. That's better. I could hardly do it. I say, don't you feel frightened, Mark?"

"Horribly. But look sharp. Are you ready? Let's jump out together, and then fire."

"All right. Ready now. I wish I didn't feel in such a shiver. Here, I'm ready. Perhaps it will scare the brutes."

"Hope so," said Mark, as he drew aside the folds of the tilt and crouched by the waggon chest ready to spring. "Hooray! There's somebody shouting. Now then; take hold of my hand. Let's jump together."

There was a double thud, as the boys sprang out into the darkness.

"Now then--ready?"

"Yes," cried Dean, firmly now, as soon as he had made his desperate plunge into danger.

"Fire!"

_Bang! Bang_!

"Again!" cried Mark, and directly after there was the repet.i.tion of the reports and the rustling sound of replacing the empty cartridges.

"Hi, there!" came in a voice from out of the darkness, sounding distant.

"Is that you boys?"

"Yes, doctor," cried Mark. "Where's father?"

"Here, my boy. Where's your cousin?"

"I'm here, uncle."

"Good. But you two fellows ought to have stopped in the waggon."

Directly after Sir James and the doctor joined them, and a couple more shots came from a distance, in the direction where the thundering beat of hoofs was beginning to die away, and then shots again, followed by a hideous snarling and roaring, as if very near at hand several lions were quarrelling like angry cats over their prey.

"Ahoy, there!" shouted the doctor.

"Ahoy!" came from two places in the distance.

"Rally here," cried the doctor, as loud as he could shout. "Up here by the waggon!"

This was followed by the beating of feet upon the thick gra.s.s, and all the time the trampling of oxen grew more distant, while the savage snarling went on and was punctuated in the darkness every now and then by a deep-toned bark.

"This way," cried the doctor. "Come on!"

The boys' hearts beat hard at this, for the doctor's words were answered by a chorus of snarls from what Mark judged now to be a portion of the forest not many yards away; and involuntarily the boys raised their rifles to their shoulders as they glanced to right and left, trying to make out through the darkness whether the way was clear for a shot.

"Hadn't we better fire again, father?"

"No," said the doctor sharply, from close at hand. "The men are rallying, and we may hit somebody."

"Yes," said Sir James quickly.

"And besides," continued the doctor, "if we fire at where that snarling comes from it will be answered by a rush. The brutes can see in this horrid darkness."

"What are they doing?" asked Dean.

"They have pulled down a bullock, boys, and they are quarrelling over it. Can't you hear? Oh, this darkness!" cried the speaker, and he gave--so the sound indicated--a stamp of one foot.

"Is the boss there?" cried a gruff voice.