ns, they
listened. Then, hearing nothing, they carefully examined the boat. It
was empty--there were not even oars in it.

Looking about them, they saw a hollow behind some rocks. To this they
ran, crouching close to the ground, and there they sat and consulted.

It was between two and three o'clock the next morning that Maka's eyes,
which had not closed for more than twenty hours, refused to keep open any
longer, and with his head on the hard, rocky ground of the passage in
which he lay, the poor African slept soundly. On the shelf at the edge of
the lake, the other African, Mok, sat crouched on his heels, his eyes
wide open. Whether he was asleep or not it would have been difficult to
determine, but if any one had appeared in the great cleft on the other
side of the lake, he would have sprung to his feet with a yell--his fear
of the Rackbirds was always awake.

Inside the first apartment was Captain Horn, fast asleep, his two guns by
his side. He had kept watch until an hour before, but Ralph had insisted
upon taking his turn, and, as the captain knew he could not keep awake
always, he allowed the boy to take a short watch. But now Ralph was
leaning back against one of the walls, snoring evenly and steadily. In
the next room sat Edna Markham, wide awake. She knew of the arrangement
made with Ralph, and she knew the boy's healthy, sleepy nature, so that
when he went on watch she went on watch.

Outside of the cave were three wild beasts. One of them was crouching on
the farther end of the plateau. Another, on the lower ground a little
below, stood, gun in hand, and barely visible in the starlight. A third,
barefooted, and in garments dingy as the night, and armed only with a
knife, crept softly toward the entrance of the cave. There he stopped
and listened. He could plainly hear the breathing of the sleepers. He
tried to separate these sounds one from another, so that he should be
able to determine how many persons were sleeping inside, but this he
could not do. Then his cat-like eyes, becoming more and more accustomed
to the darkness within the entrance, saw the round head of Maka close
upon the ground.

The soul of the listening fiend laughed within him. "Pretty watchers they
are," he said to himself. "Not three hours after midnight, and they are
all snoring!" Then, as stealthily and as slowly as he had come, he
slipped away, and joining the others, they all glided through the
darkness down to the beach, and the