I got it only the other day when I was down
yonder right away towards the end of the ruins, seeing how far I could
go without getting lost. I'd quite forgot all about it till you began
to talk. I caught sight of something--just a peep of it as it looked up
at me and then ran in amongst the rocks and bushes. I hadn't got a gun
with me, and perhaps I had no business to be loafing about."

"Oh, never mind that," said Mark. "What was it you saw?"

"Well, it was something like a good big dog, but I had no chance of
seeing it well; and I was just going to turn back when there it was
again, or another like it, squatting on a stone at the end of one of
them big walls; and when it saw I was watching, it was out of sight
directly."

"Well, that doesn't help us much," said Mark impatiently.

"Don't it, sir? I thought it did, for it seems to me that it was what
you saw to-night."

"Maybe," said Mark; "but what was it?"

"Well, I will tell you, sir. It was one of them big monkeys as Buck
Denham talks about."

"I never knew him talk about any."

"Oh, he has to me, sir. He has seen them over and over again when he
has been out with hunting gentlemen. He says they are as big as a
good-sized dog, and a bit like one about the head. But they've got next
to no tail. Go in packs, they do, like dogs, and make a sort of a
barking noise. Pretty fierce too, he says they are, and bite like all
that. Don't you think it might be one of them? Buck says they live in
the kopjes."

"But would one be likely to be about here in the dark?"

"There's no knowing, sir--hanging round our kraal to see if it could
pick up a bit of anything to eat. But there, I'll keep a sharp look
out, and if I see anything worth while I'll fire."

"Do," said Mark. "Good-night."

"Good-night, sir."

Mark went to his blanket, and forgot all about the incident till after
breakfast when he met his relief, who signed to him to follow into the
clearing they had made by cutting down and burning the bushes.

"What is it, Dan?"

"Only this, sir. Remember what you saw last night?"

"Yes," cried Mark eagerly. "Did you see it too?"

"Well, I'm not sure, sir; only think I did."

"Think?"

"Well, you see, sir, what you said seemed to make me expect that I
should see something. I could not be sure."

"Well, we had better tell my father and the doctor, and let's do it
now."

Mark led the way straight to where the above were busily talking
togeth