“Then go.”
“Bother!” muttered the boy, as he went off. “He might as well have let me stay. It would have been company for him.”
Mark stepped on towards the dark side of the waggon, and continued muttering to himself till he raised his hand to the side of the great clumsy vehicle, placed a foot on one of the spokes, and was in the act of drawing himself up to climb in, but suddenly let himself drop back, for something leaped out of the interior of the waggon right over his cousin, reaching the earth with a dull thud, and darting away.
“Whatever can that be?” said the boy excitedly, and with a catching of the breath.
He felt his heart begin to pump heavily in his excitement.
“It must have been one of those leopards, but it gave me no time to see what it was like. Here, Dean,” he whispered, as he climbed up and bent over his sleeping cousin. “Dean!”
“Oh, bother!”
“Don’t make a noise,” whispered Mark. “Wake up.”
“Eh? Is it lions?”
“No, no. Speak lower, or you will alarm the camp.”