ng it to attract the prowling beasts to the
spot.

When the gun had been set, Swartboy carried up the bait--the offal of an
antelope killed that day--and flung it into the kraal; and then the
party went quietly to their beds, without thinking more of the matter.

They had not slept a wink, however, before they were startled by the
loud "crack" of the roer, followed by a short stifled cry that told them
the gun-trap had done its work.

A torch was procured, and the four hunters proceeded to the spot. There
they found the dead body of a huge "tiger-wolf" lying doubled up in the
entrance, and right under the muzzle of the gun. He had not gone a step
after receiving the shot--in fact, had hardly kicked before dying--as
the bullet, wad, and all, had gone quite through his ribs and entered
his heart, after making a large ugly hole in his side. Of course he must
have been within a few inches of the muzzle, when his breast, pressing
against the string, caused the gun to go off.

Having again loaded the roer, the hunters returned to their beds. One
might suppose they would have dragged the suicidal hyena away from the
spot, lest his carcass should serve as a warning to his comrades, and
keep them away from the trap. But Swartboy knew better than that.
Instead of being scared by the dead body of one of their kind, the
hyenas only regard it as proper prey, and will devour it as they would
the remains of a tender antelope!

Knowing this, Swartboy did not take the dead hyena away, but only drew
it within the kraal to serve as a farther inducement for the others to
attempt an entrance there.

Before morning they were once more awakened by the "bang" of the great
gun. This time they lay still; but when day broke they visited their
trap, and found that a second hyena had too rashly pressed his bosom
against the fatal string.

Night after night they continued their warfare against the hyenas,
changing the trap-kraal to different localities in the surrounding
neighbourhood.

At length these creatures were nearly exterminated, or, at all events,
became so rare and shy, that their presence by the camp was no longer an
annoyance one way or the other.

About this time, however, there appeared another set of visitors, whose
presence was far more to be dreaded, and whose destruction the hunters
were more anxious to accomplish. That was a family of lions.

The spoor of these had been often seen in the neighbourhood; but it was
some