They crouched on the branches like drenched birds, and listened to what was going on below. For a while deep silence reigned, then again there were sounds denoting the tearing of large pieces of meat, the greedy smacking of lips, the gasping breath and the groans of the monsters.
The scent of raw meat and blood penetrated into the top of the tree, for the lions held their feast not further than twenty feet away from the hedge. They feasted so long that Stasch lost patience and became angry, and he took up the rifle and shot in the direction from which the noises came. A short, broken-off, angry roar was the only answer. Then once more was heard the cracking of the bones, which the animals of prey crunched between their enormous jaws. In the background the blue and red eyes of the hyenas and jackals glistened as they awaited their turn.
And so the endless hours of the night dragged on.
CHAPTER IV
At last the sun rose and lighted up the jungle, the scattered groves, and the forest. The lions disappeared with the first ray of dawn. Stasch made Kali build a fire and ordered Mea to take Nell’s things out of the leather bag, in which they were packed, to dry them and change the girl’s clothes as quickly as possible. He took the rifle and carefully went over the camp to see what ravages had been made by the storm and the bloodthirsty beasts.
Just behind the hedge, only the stakes of which remained, lay the first horse, nearly half devoured; some hundred feet further, a second, hardly begun; and next to it the third, with its stomach torn open and its head smashed in. They all presented a terrible sight, for in their open, glassy eyes could be seen their terror at approaching death, and their wide-open jaws displayed their strong teeth. The ground was stamped down and the cavities formed pools of blood. Stasch was so enraged that at the moment he almost wished that the disheveled head of one of the nocturnal robbers, tired out after the feast, would appear behind one of the bushes, so that he might send a bullet through it. But he was obliged to postpone his revenge at present, for he had other things to attend to.
The remaining horses had to be caught. The boy supposed that like Saba, whose carcass was nowhere to be seen, they might have hidden somewhere in the woods. The hope that the faithful fellow-sufferer had not fallen a prey to the wild animals made Stasch feel so happy that he took courage once more, and the finding of the donkey naturally increased his joy. It so happened that clever longears had not even taken the trouble to run far away. He had simply crept into a nook made by the ant-hill and the large tree outside the hedge, and there, with head and sides protected, he had awaited events, in readiness at any moment to repulse the attack by vigorously kicking out his hind legs. But the lions had apparently not noticed him, so when the sun rose and the danger was over he felt the necessity of lying down and taking a good rest after all the tragical events of the night.
While circling the camp Stasch at last found the impress of horses’ hoofs in the moistened earth. The tracks pointed toward the woods and then turned off toward the gorge. That was fortunate, for it would not be difficult to capture horses in the narrow pass. A little further on in the grass was found a foot-chain, which one of the horses had succeeded in breaking off during its flight. This horse must have run away so far that for the present he would have to be considered lost. To offset this, Stasch discovered the other two behind a low rock, not in the ravine, but on its borders. One of them was rolling on the ground, the other grazing in the fresh green grass. Both looked very tired, as though they had run a long distance. But daylight had driven all fear from their hearts, and they greeted Stasch by neighing in a short, friendly way. The horse which was rolling on the ground sprang to his feet, which enabled the boy to see that he also had succeeded in breaking loose from his foot-chains, but fortunately he had preferred remaining with his friend to running away aimlessly.
Stasch left both of them under the cliff and advanced to the edge of the ravine to make sure whether it were possible to continue the journey. He now saw that the heavy downpour had been so severe that the rain had run off and the ground was nearly dry. And soon his attention was attracted by a grayish-white article, which had been caught in the vines overhanging the opposite side of the cliff. This proved to be the roof of the tent, which had been blown off and caught on the bushes; it had taken such a strong hold that the rain could not wash it away. After all, the tent offered a better shelter for Nell than the hut made of branches of trees put together hastily, and Stasch was much pleased at finding this article, which he had thought was lost.
Now his joy increased when out of a higher crevice in the cliff hidden by lianas Saba came running toward him, holding in his teeth an animal whose head and tail hung out of either side of his jaws. The huge dog climbed down in a minute and laid at Stasch’s feet a striped hyena, with broken back and one foot bitten off; then he began to wag his tail and to bark cheerfully as if to say: “I must acknowledge that I took to my heels before the lion, but even you crouched like birds on the tree. And besides, you see, I have not passed the night without accomplishing something.”