In due course the two men went to bed and both fell asleep.
Their awakening was as sudden as it was unusual. Something fell heavily on Fernie's chest. Still half-asleep, he hit out instinctively. His fist came in violent contact with hairy ribs. A beast grunted and scrambled away.
Meanwhile Black had received a leg of the reedbuck on his head and was pushing the clammy thing from him.
It appears that a hyena had crept up between the sleeping men, had sprung at the meat piled on the upturned roof, had misjudged the distance, and had fallen back in a heap upon Fernie. In its ineffectual attempt to carry off the meat it had dislodged a piece, which fell upon Black.
The friends re-made their beds, replenished the fire, and Black turned in again. Fernie, determined to get a shot at the hyena, should it return, sat up, rifle in hand, and watched for some time.
After a while he got tired of sitting up, so got back into his blankets again.
For perhaps an hour he lay on his back, holding his rifle in his hand, the butt resting on his chest and the barrel pointing straight up into the sky. It was in those positions that Black remembered seeing man and weapon just before he slipped off to sleep.
How long it was before Fernie went to sleep neither had means of knowing, but both awoke to the sound of Fernie's rifle.
"What's up?" asked Black.
"Blest if I know quite."