e soughing of the tree-tops in
the soft breeze above failed to meet their ears. What a deathly
stillness it was!

Suddenly, right out of the black shadows ahead, there sounded on the
hushed air of the night three terrific yells, one following immediately
after the other. These piercing cries had hardly died out when
another, of deeper note, and a veritable roar, filled the forest with
its din. The leaves about the boys seemed fairly to quiver under the
violent guttural reverberations.

John Ross may well have been excused for shaking as he held up his
lantern in his right hand and threw its rays upon the tall undergrowth
ahead, while his fingers tightened like bands of steel around the stock
of his repeating-rifle.

As he and his companions looked, they saw peeping through the foliage a
black, fierce face, one of the ugliest and most ferocious that man
could have imagined. It was staring straight at them. The brute's
eyes were sunken under a heavy overhanging ridge of dusky skin. His
eyes were small and black, and the iris of each shone like a diamond
set in carbon. His forehead was low, receding, and covered with short
bristling hair. His nose was broad and flat. His great jaw protruded
frightfully, with the upper thin lip pressed tight, the lower curving
away and displaying a row of long yellow tusks which could have bitten
the hand off a man with one crunch.

The animal now opened his cavernous mouth, and uttered yell after yell
again, these sounding something like the bark of a dog but being a
hundred times louder. They were followed by terrific roars, somewhat
similar to those of a lion, though of much greater volume. The cries
rang through the forest from hill to hill, and died away in the
distance. The woods was filled with the echo of his horrible voice.

Then, very slowly his whole body came in sight. He advanced clumsily
and ponderously towards the little party of flyers, walking erect, his
plain intent being to kill them. His short legs were hardly strong
enough, as sturdy as they were, to support his huge body. All at once
he stopped to look at them. How vindictive his eyes were! They seemed
to say to the boys: "I will soon finish you!"

Then he beat his chest with his great fists and the noise was like a
bandman striking a bass-drum. It was his challenge to combat. How
long and muscular were the shaggy arms that directed these blows! How
broad was his chest from which the sounds c