No aasvogel had done this : it was hyenas' work. 

 The high-shouldered slinking brute, with jaws like a 

 stone-crusher, alone cracks bones like those and bigger 

 ones which even the lion cannot tackle. I walked 

 back a little way and found the scene of the last stand, 

 all harrowed bare ; but there was no spoor of koodoo 

 or of Jock to be seen there only prints innumerable of 

 wild dogs, hyenas and jackals, and some traces of where 

 the carcase, no doubt already half eaten, had been 

 dragged by them in the effort to tear it asunder. 



Jock had several times shown that he strongly 

 objected to any interference with his quarry ; other 

 dogs, kaffirs, and even white men, had suffered or been 

 badly scared for rashly laying hands on what he had 

 pulled down. Without any doubt he had expected 

 to find the koodoo there and had dealt with the aas- 

 vogels as trespassers ; otherwise he would not have 

 tackled them without word from me. It was also 

 sure that until past midnight he had been there with 

 the koodoo, watching or fighting. Then when had 

 the hyenas and wild-dogs come ? That was the ques- 

 tion I would have given much to have had answered. 

 But only Jock knew that ! 



I looked at him. The mane on his neck and 

 shoulders which had risen at the sight of the vultures 

 was not flat yet ; he was sniffing about slowly and care- 

 fully on the spoor of the hyenas and wild dogs ; and 

 he looked ' fight ' all over. But what it all meant 

 was beyond me ; I could only guess just as you will 

 what had happened out in the silent ghostly bush 



that night. 



