"They've got him!" said Oscar gleefully as he threw himself from his horse and pulled the reins over his head, so that the animal would step on them and check himself if he attempted to stray away during his master's absence. "If I don't make haste they'll tear him all to pieces. What was that? I declare, he has given one of them a prod with his horns!"
Just then a piercing howl of pain came from the gloomy depths of the grove, bearing testimony to the fact that one of the hounds had been severely wounded. With it came other sounds that ought to have made Oscar very cautious, but in his excitement he did not hear them. The only thought in his mind was that there was a desperate fight going on in the thorn bushes, a short distance away, between the wounded antelope and the hounds, and that, if he did not put in an appearance and bring it to a speedy close, the koodoo would kill both his dogs, or else the dogs would kill the koodoo and tear his skin, so that one of his prizes, for which he had worked so hard, would be useless as a specimen.
Holding his rifle in one hand and parting the bushes before his face with the other, Oscar worked his way into the grove, making as little noise as possible, for fear that the koodoo would make off if he became aware that the dogs he was so gallantly fighting were about to receive assistance. Louder grew the noise of the conflict as the young hunter drew nearer to the combatants, and now he noticed that he could hear the baying of but one dog, and that the koodoo, having ceased his bleating, was giving utterance to very strange sounds. They resembled——
"Great Scott!" ejaculated Oscar.
For a moment his heart stood still and his hand trembled, like a leaf shaken by the wind. Just then he reached the edge of the thicket, and saw, in a little open space before him, the battle-ground and all the animals that had taken part in the struggle.
There were seven of them—three that would never do battle again, and four that were still alive and full of fight. The dead ones were Rover, who was so badly torn that he might have been taken for almost anything except a Scotch deer-hound, the koodoo, and an immense spotted hyena, which was impaled upon its powerful horns. In falling the buck had pinned his antagonist to the ground in such a way that he could not release himself, and the two had died there together.
The survivors of the fight were three other hyenas, which were ravenously devouring the antelope, and Ralph, who, unharmed and angry, bounded lightly about them, nimbly eluding the savage dashes they made at him, and protesting with all his might against such a desecration of his master's property. It was a most unexpected sight, and Oscar was so surprised and startled by it that, for a moment, he did not know whether to stand his ground or take to his heels.