"Eh? I wouldn't go out there for all the money there is in Africa," replied McCann in a scarcely audible voice.
Seeing very plainly that there was nothing to be expected of the after-rider, for that night at least, Oscar laid down his rifle, and was about to step upon the dissel-boom, intending to go out and replenish the fires himself, when something happened that proved almost too much for his courage.
The roars of defiance had all this while grown louder and fiercer, and the way in which the kingly beasts challenged one another when they arrived on opposite sides of the fountain was simply terrific.
They kept this up for a minute or two, and finally some of the boldest and angriest of them came together.
A terrible battle ensued, and Oscar could not tell whether there were two or a dozen engaged in it. He knew that they did not all take part, for he could hear some of them roaring with all the power of their lungs, as if they hoped in that way to encourage their respective champions to greater exertions.
The hubbub they raised was altogether too much for the nerve of the Hottentots, who suddenly jumped up from behind the fence of thorn bushes they had built around their fire, and ran toward the wagon, chattering like monkeys.
"Keep out of here," said Oscar sternly. "Go back and throw on more wood."
The Hottentots disappeared as if by magic, and Oscar, holding fast with both hands to his heavy rifle, which had more than once been on the point of slipping out of his grasp, stood on the fore-chest and listened to the noise of the combat.
He strained his eyes, trying to peer through the darkness to obtain a glimpse of the contestants, but all in vain. The banks of the water-course in which the fight was carried on were high, and there were several trees between him and the fountain.
But even if the battle had taken place on the open plain he could not have witnessed it, for the color of the lion's hair renders him invisible in the dark. Mr. Lawrence had told him that, on more than one occasion, while he was watching a fountain at night, he had heard a lion loudly lapping the water within twenty feet of him, and yet he could not see him.