ocent little Truey, nor the diminutive Jan.

Had they been strangers to these sounds, no doubt they would have been
more than frightened. They would have been terrified by them; for they
were calculated to produce such an effect upon any one to whose ears
they were new.

But Von Bloom and his family had lived too long upon the wild karoo to
be ignorant of those voices. In the howling, and chattering, and
yelping, they heard but the cries of the jackal; and they well knew the
maniac laugh of the hideous hyena.

Instead of being alarmed, and springing from their beds, they lay still
and listened--not dreading any attack from the noisy creatures.

Von Bloom and the children slept in the wagon; Swartboy and Totty upon
the ground--but these lay close to the fires, and therefore did not fear
wild beasts of any kind.

But the hyenas and jackals upon this occasion appeared to be both
numerous and bold. In a few minutes after they were first heard, their
cries rose around the camp on all sides, so near and so loud as to be
positively disagreeable--even without considering the nature of the
brutes that uttered them.

At last they came so close, that it was impossible to look in any
direction without seeing a pair of green or red eyes gleaming under the
light of the fires! White teeth, too, could be observed, as the hyenas
opened their jaws, to give utterance to their harsh laughter-like cries.

With such a sight before their eyes, and such sounds ringing in their
ears, neither Von Bloom nor any of his people--tired as they were--could
go to sleep. Indeed, not only was sleep out of the question, but, worse
than that, all--the field-cornet himself not excepted--began to
experience some feelings of apprehension, if not actual alarm.

They had never beheld a troop of hyenas so numerous and fierce. There
could not be less than two dozen of them around the camp, with twice
that number of jackals.

Von Bloom knew that although, under ordinary circumstances, the hyena is
not a dangerous animal, yet there are places and times when he will
attack human beings. Swartboy knew this well, and Hans, too, from
having read of it. No wonder, then, that some apprehension was felt by
all of them.

The hyenas now behaved with such boldness, and appeared so ravenous,
that sleep was out of the question. Some demonstration must be made to
drive the brutes away from the camp.

Von Bloom, Hans, and Hendrik, laid hold of their guns, a