"Now, now, you fellows!" interrupted Colonel Narfield's voice from the vicinity of the blazing fire, "palaver ended. Not another word, or you'll both be fat-headed in the morning."
Both lads relapsed into silence. They knew perfectly well that with Colonel Narfield an order was an order in whatever form it was expressed. For the time being, then, Colin's explanations of his surprising theory had to be shelved.
Ten minutes later both lads were sound asleep beneath the African stars. The watcher by the fire heard their regular breathing.
"Not much wrong there," he soliloquised with a smile, "if they can sleep like that."
The roaring grew louder. He threw another armful of brushwood upon the fire and carefully wiped the dewy moisture from the barrel and sights of his rifle. Then he strolled across to where McFrazer was sitting, painstakingly shredding a plug of Boer tobacco in the palm of his left hand.
"Aren't you turning in?" he asked.
"Weel, I'm thinkin' not, sir," replied the man. "Them beasties seem a bit too venturesome the nicht."
Narfield nodded gravely. In spite of his reassurances to the two lads, he was far from being easy in his mind. He recollected a story, told him only two days ago, of a lioness breaking through a ring of fire round a kraal and carrying off a full-grown sheep. Another disconcerting fact was a knowledge that, at the present rate of consumption, the pile of firewood was diminishing far too rapidly.
For two hours the two men waited and watched, while their younger companions slept. Apparently the lions had decided to maintain a safe distance. They were roaring at frequent intervals—deep, prolonged volumes of sound, and yet Colin and Tiny still slept.
Suddenly an antelope, racing like the wind, tore along the mountain path. For a brief instant the startled creature stopped and gazed at the blazing fire with consternation plainly written in its large brown eyes. Then, evidently deeming the terror behind was more formidable than that in front, it rushed madly between the flames and the brink of the precipice and vanished in the darkness.