of them took a critical bite at his
arm; but he did not stir. They seemed nonplussed. Another tried the
condition of his leg, while many of them pulled at his clothes, as if in
impotent rage at finding him so fresh. But he did not move; in an agony
of suspense he waited motionless.

Presently, to his amazement, he was lifted up by two hyenas, which fixed
their teeth in his ankle and his wrist, and, accompanied by the rest,
his bearers set off with him swinging between them, sometimes fairly
carrying him, sometimes simply dragging him, now and again dropping him
for a moment to refix their teeth more firmly in his flesh. Believing
him to be dead, they were conveying him to their retreat, there to
devour him when he was in a fit condition. He fully realised this, but
he was powerless to defend himself from such a fate.

How far they carried him Spencer could not tell, for from the pain he
was suffering from his wounds, and the dreadful strain of being carried
in such a manner, he fell into semi-consciousness from time to time; but
the distance must have been considerable, for night was over the land
and the sky sparkling with stars before the beasts finally halted; and
then they dropped him in what he knew, by the horrible and overpowering
smell peculiar to hyenas, was the cavern home of the pack. Here he lay
throughout the awful night, surrounded by his captors, suffering acutely
from his injuries, thirst, and the vile smell of the place.

When morning broke he found that the pack had already gone out in search
of more ready food, leaving him in charge of two immense brutes, which
watched him narrowly all through the day; for, unarmed as he was, and
exhausted, he knew it would be suicide to attempt to tackle his
janitors. He could only wait on chance. Once or twice during the day the
beasts tried him with their teeth, giving unmistakable signs of disgust
at the poor progress he was making. At nightfall they tried him again,
and, being apparently hungry, one of them deserted its post and went
off, like the others, in search of food.

This gave the wretched man a glimmering of hope, for he knew that the
hyena dislikes its own company, and that the remaining beast would
certainly desert if the pack remained away long enough. But for hour
after hour the animal stayed on duty, never going farther than the mouth
of the cave. When the second morning broke, however, the hyena grew very
restless, going out and remaining away f