y
brightened, they became aware of certain shadowy forms indistinctly seen
moving hither and thither in the deeper shadow of the trees, their
whereabouts betrayed by the momentary rattle of a displaced pebble, or
the soft plash of their feet in the shallow pools from which they drank.

At length there came a moment when, perhaps from some subtle atmospheric
change, affecting the quality of the light, they suddenly became aware
that the open space in the midst of which they were ambushed was teeming
with animal life. The forest seemed to be pouring out its denizens from
every quarter, and all of them were flocking to this spot to quench
their thirst. Yonder, for example, was a crowd of buck, of a dozen or
more different kinds, all congregated together in one spot, and more or
less vigorously hustling each other in their endeavours to get at the
most desirable pool, while, some distance away, three leopards,
flattened out upon a low overhanging ledge of rock until they were
scarcely distinguishable, lapped the water from a tiny streamlet that
trickled past them. Here, quite close at hand, a troop of monkeys of
various kinds and sizes were softly yet fiercely chattering at each
other as they squabbled for the best places, while others, with quick,
excited gestures, ladled up the water in the palms of their hands, from
which they drank. None of these creatures, however, were deemed by the
lurking hunters as worthy of their attentions, although Sziszkinski
would fain have had a shot at the leopards; but von Schalckenberg
explained, in a scarcely audible whisper, that everything in sight
belonged to well-known species, while they were avowedly out after only
rare specimens. The leopards, therefore, were, like the bucks, allowed
to drink their fill and retire unmolested.

But now a sound of deep grunting and snorting, accompanied by the
occasional snap of a dried branch, gradually separated itself from and
became audible above the other noises of the forest, betraying the
approach of some beast that scorned concealment, and presently there
emerged into the opening a huge red buffalo, shaggy of hide, ferocious
of aspect, and with a pair of enormous, deep-curving horns. He
clattered down the narrow, shingly, boulder-strewn bed of the river--so
noisily that the monkeys fled precipitately, with loud shrieks of
alarm--and stood fully revealed in a small patch of brilliantly white
moonlight, tossing his head, and sniffing the