leopard is abroad and making
down toward the village, and that if you will come quickly you will have
a good chance to kill the beast."

"All right," I replied drowsily, as I sat up on the cartel and began to
feel about for my boots. "Find the tinder box, Jan, and light the
lamp."

A minute later the lamp was lighted, and I proceeded hurriedly to get
into my clothes. Then, taking my rifle, and instructing Jan to follow
me with the double-barrel, I emerged from the wagon, to find a
well-grown Basuto lad of about eighteen years of age impatiently waiting
to guide me to the scene of action.

"Well, 'mfaan," said I, "so the leopard is abroad. Whereabout is he?"

"He is somewhere on the other side of that ridge, 'Nkos'," answered the
lad. "He came out from behind the krantz and, entering the long grass,
disappeared. But my brother yonder is watching his movements, and if we
hasten we may cut him off before he reaches the village. See, 'Nkos',
there is my brother--you can see his head and shoulders above the ridge;
he is waving us to hasten."

I looked in the direction toward which the lad pointed. The moon was
high in the heavens, almost overhead in fact, and the entire scene was
flooded with her white rays. Before us the ground rose slightly to a
ridge about one hundred yards distant; past this lay a depression
through which a small stream ran, while beyond the stream the ground
rose again in a long, bush-clad slope, which swept away into the extreme
distance, grey and mysterious, forming the background of the scene. The
foreground and nearer distances were brilliantly illuminated by the cold
rays of the moon, rendering objects within a quarter of a mile almost as
distinct as though it were midday; and, clearly defined against the
ghostly grey of the grass-clad ridge, I could see the head and shoulders
of a savage, the white moonlight gleaming upon his ebony skin as he
waved his arm, signalling to us.

"This way, 'Nkos', this way!" whispered my guide excitedly, leading the
way toward the lower edge of the depression; and, walking fast, I
followed him, with Jan bringing up the rear. Five minutes of quick
wading through the long, dew-saturated grass carried us over the ridge,
but much lower down than where the watcher was stationed; and the
depression--which was scarcely deep enough to be termed a ravine--lay
before us. Here we paused a moment to reconnoitre, but, seeing nothing,
moved rapidly forward again