THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF, 363 



upon the night, as it seemed just outside the house, 

 a wild scream, hideous in its intensity and full of 

 horror. 



Hastily thrusting on some clothes and taking a 

 lantern, Goodrick ran round to the stable. The 

 night, though there was no moon, was not dark r 

 and the stars shone clear in the firmament above. 

 Nothing was to be seen, no sound could be heard 

 save the snorting of the horses, and the weird cry of 

 a leopard, (strangely different, as the hearer well 

 knew, from the scream heard just previously), that 

 sounded from the rocks a mile or so away on the 

 right. Quickly entering the stable, Stephen was 

 astonished to find the horses in a profuse sweat, 

 trembling, their halters broken, their eyes startled 

 and excited, and their whole demeanour indicating 

 intense fear. What could be the cause ? There 

 was, apparently, no wild animal about, nothing in 

 the stable calculated to excite alarm ; the animals 

 were old comrades, and not likely to have been 

 fighting. Goodrick was altogether puzzled, and, 

 leaving the stable, went to a shed in rear of the 

 house, where the natives slept, and roused the old 

 Hottentot. He could give no reason for the 

 disturbance. " Wolves (hyaenas) were not likely to 

 approach the house, and the tigers (leopards) had 

 not been very troublesome lately," and he could 

 think of nothing else to explain the matter. There 

 was a scared look in the old man's face, which 

 Goodrick thought nothing of at the time, but 

 which he afterwards remembered. After some little 

 trouble, fresh halters were procured, the horses tied 

 up and soothed, and the two again retired, Cupido 

 being cautioned to keep his ears open against 



