“No, massa; no shot at wild beast. De wild beast hab bin here too, but dey come for to eat mans after he dead.”
“Come, let us see the spot,” said Jack.
Makarooroo at once led the way, and we all followed him to a place not a hundred yards distant, where there were evident traces of a fight having taken place. Jack seemed to be much distressed at the sight.
“There can be no question as to the fact,” he remarked as we returned to our fire; “and at any other time or in any other place I would have thought nothing of it, for we know well enough that the natives here often go to war with each other; but just at this time, and so near to our friend Mbango—I fear, I fear much that that villain has been before us.”
“No been long, massa,” said Makarooroo earnestly. “If we go quick we ketch ’im.”
“We shall go quick, Mak. But in order to do that, we must eat well, and sleep at least an hour or so. If we push on just now, after a hard day’s journey, without food or rest, we shall make but slow progress; and even if we did come up with the slave-dealer, we should not be in a very fit state for a battle.”
This was so obvious that we all felt the wisdom of Jack’s remarks; so we ate a hearty supper, and then lay down to rest. Peterkin declared the frog to be excellent, but I could not at that time make up my mind to try it.
An hour and a half after lying down, our guide awakened us, and we set forth again with recruited energies.
That night the lions and hyenas roared around us more than was their wont, as if they were aware of our anxious condition, and were desirous of increasing our discomforts. We had to keep a sharp lookout, and once or twice discharged our rifles in the direction of the nearest sounds, not in the expectation of hitting any of the animals, but for the purpose of scaring them away.
Towards morning we came out upon an open plain, and left these evil prowlers of the night behind us.