would have to submit to a similar fate.

His unpleasant reveries were interrupted by a short, angry bark; and,
looking up to the opening through which he had descended, he beheld the
countenance of a wild dog,--the "wilde honden" of the Dutch Boers.

Uttering another and a different cry, the animal started back; and from
the sounds now heard overhead, the Bushman was certain that it was
accompanied by many others of its kind.

An instinctive fear of man led them to retreat for a short distance; but
they soon found out that "the wicked flee when no man pursueth," and
they returned.

They were hungry, and had the sense to know that the enemy they had
discovered was, for some reason, unable to molest them.

Approaching nearer, and more near, they again gathered around the pits,
and saw that food was waiting for them at the bottom of both. They
could contemplate their victims unharmed, and this made them courageous
enough to think of an attack. The human voice and the gaze of human
eyes had lost their power, and the pack of wild hounds, counting several
score, began to think of taking some steps towards satisfying their
hunger.

They commenced scratching and tearing away the covering of the pits,
sending down a shower of dust, sand, and grass that nearly suffocated
the two men imprisoned beneath.

The poles supporting the screen of earth were rotten with age, and the
whole scaffolding threatened to come down as the wild dogs scampered
over it.

"If there should be a shower of dogs," thought Swartboy, "I hope that
fool Congo will have his share of it."

This hope was immediately realised, for the next instant he heard the
howling of one of the animals evidently down in the adjoining pit. It
had fallen through, but, fortunately for Congo, not without injuring
itself in a way that he had but narrowly escaped. The dog had got
transfixed on the sharp-pointed stake, planted firmly in the centre of
the pit, and was now hanging on it in horrible agony, unable to get
clear.

Without lying down in the mud, the Kaffir was unable to keep his face
more than twelve inches from the open jaws of the dog, that in its
struggles spun round as on a pivot; and Congo had to press close against
the side of the pit, to keep out of the reach of the creature yelping in
his ears.

Swartboy could distinguish the utterances of this dog from those of its
companions above, and the interpretation he gave to them was, that a
fierce com