ure
within, standing hidden from the moonlight, began to sway and stir and
totter over the snow. And Nod, choking with terror, called one word
only--"Sulani!" Then, with all his force, he whistled once, twice,
thrice, clear and loud and long and shrill; then he shut fast the door
and barred it, and went and crouched beside the Oomgar's bed.

Already Battle was wide awake. "Ahoy!" said he, and started up and
thrust out his hand for his gun.

"Steady--oh, steady, Oomgar Zbaffle!" said Nod. "It is dogs of the
Immanala only, that soon will be gone."

Even as he spoke rose out of the distance a dreadful baying and howling.
Battle leapt up out of his bed to the window-hole. But Nod squatted
shivering, his face hidden in his hands.

"Ghost of me! What is it?" said Battle to himself. "What beast is this
they're after--M'keeso, or Man of the Woods?"

It reeled, it fell, it rose up; it wheeled slowly, faintly weeping and
whining, and then stood still, with arms lifted high, struggling like a
man with a great burden. But over the crudded snow, like a cloud across
the moon, streamed with brindled hair on end, jaws gaping and flaming
eyes, the hungry pack of the Shadow's hunting-dogs. "Oomgar, Oomgar,
Oomgar, Oomgar!" they yelled one to another. "Immanala, Immanala, death,
death, death!" And presently, while Battle in amazement watched, there
came one miserable cry of fear and pain. The tottering shape seemed to
melt, to vanish.

Then Nod scampered and opened the door.

"What say you now, hunting-dogs? Was the Oomgar tender or tough?"

"Tough, tough!" they yelled.

"Go, then, and tell your mistress, Queen of Shadows, Immanala, that you
have supped with the Prince of Tishnar, and are satisfied."

"Why lurks the little Mulgar in the Oomgar's hut?" yelped a lank hoary
Jaccatray.

"I guard her treasures for the Nameless," said Nod; but he had hardly
said the word when he heard Battle striding to the door.

"It's no good prattling and blabbing, my son," he was saying. "If come
it be, it's come. Off, now, while your skin's whole, and let me give the
rogues a taste of powder."

Two or three of the hunting-dogs yelped aloud. "What, my brothers!" said
Nod. "Did you hear the Oomgar's Meermut calling for his gun?"

A few of the meaner dogs scampered off a few paces at this, sniffing and
cocking their ears.

"Out of the way, Pongo," whispered the Englishman through the doorway,
and the next moment there fell a crash that near