"What are the habits of these hyenas?" asked Oscar after a few moments' pause. "What do they do with themselves during the daytime? I should like to know all about them, for I want to take a specimen or two back with me."
"I certainly hope you will succeed in getting one; but if you do it will be more by good luck than good management," replied his new friend. "I have hunted in this country for sixteen years, and during that time I have shot but very few of them. They do the most of their hunting in the night. During the daytime they are hidden away among the rocks in ravines so dark and gloomy that you would think twice before going into one of them. I never heard of a hunter being attacked by them, but I should not like to press one too closely. If I came upon him unawares I shouldn't feel easy until he was dead or disabled."
"Couldn't I trap one of them?" asked Oscar.
"There's not one chance in a thousand," was the reply. "They are very cunning."
The longer Oscar talked with his host, and the more he learned about these fierce and wary animals, the more determined he became to secure one of them by some means or other.
He succeeded, too, by what he then considered to be a stroke of good fortune, although he afterward wondered if his prize did not cost him more than it was worth.
"By the way," said Mr. Evans after he had told the young hunter all he knew about hyenas and their habits, "what are you going to do now that your cook has left you?"
"I don't know," answered Oscar. "I suppose I shall have to hire a native."
"And go into the wilderness with no one to talk to?" exclaimed Mr. Evans. "You mustn't do that. You would go crazy in less than a month. I have hunted alone, and know something about it. You must have a companion."
Oscar replied that he would be only too glad to take one with him if he knew where the right sort of person could be found; and there the matter ended until the next evening.