rength to overtake the herd. At last they came
to a spot where a larger puddle than any before stained the adjacent
grass and sand, and then the marks no longer followed the general track,
but turned aside into a deep thicket, through which the two boys had
considerable difficulty in following its course.

They had advanced some distance, when Nick suddenly laid his hand on his
companion's arm.

"Did you hear that?" he said.

"Hear what?" returned Wilmore.

"I fancied I heard a shot fired," said Gilbert, "but I suppose I must
have been mistaken."

"A shot! Who could there be in these parts to fire one? It was the
fall of a large stone from the cliffs, most likely. They are often
dislodged by the wind, and make a noise like the report of a gun. Come
along, we shall not have much further to go, I expect."

"Hist!" exclaimed Nick, again stopping. "I am quite sure I hear
something now, though in a different quarter from that in which I
fancied the gun was fired."

"What do you hear?" asked Wilmore, stopping and listening with all his
ears.

"A kind of low growling, or groaning," answered Nick; "or perhaps
grinding of teeth. It is very indistinct; but I am certain that I hear
it."

"It is the poor brute in his dying agony," said Frank. "Push on. We
must be close to him now."

By this time the dawn had begun to break, and the daylight diffused
itself rapidly over the scene. The beams of the rising sun showed that
they were, as Frank said, close on the buffalo's trail. The grass was
trampled down, as if by heavy footsteps, and blood, evidently only
recently shed, stained the bushes and long grass in profusion. And now
the sound heard by Nick became plainly audible to Frank also.

"Cock your gun, Nick!" he said. "He may have life enough left in him to
give us some trouble yet."

As he spoke he turned the corner of a large mass of prickly pear, which
had been partly forced aside and partly torn away by the passage of some
heavy body, and came upon a sight which was as alarming as it was
unexpected.

The carcass of the buffalo lay on the ground, already partially
devoured. Standing over it were a male and female panther (or tiger, as
the natives of South Africa are wont to call them), engaged in tearing
the flesh from the ribs with their long white shining teeth. The
animals were as big as an ordinary English mastiff, and the glare of
their large yellow eyes showed that the ferocity of their natur