A NIGHT PROWLER. 157 



gun, which, as chance would have it, was a smooth- 

 bore loaded with buckshot, I rushed round to the 

 further side of the enclosure, with just a hope 

 that the intruder would attempt to make his exit 

 there. 



Although the moon was up, the light was ex- 

 ceedingly bad, for the heavens surrounding it were 

 covered with a dense mass of flakey white clouds, 

 such as we should designate in England a mackerel 

 sky, thus it was anything but desirable for shoot- 

 ing. Night shooting at all times is uncertain, but 

 under such circumstances it is particularly so. What 

 between the cursing of the men, the shrill screech- 

 ing of the women, the crying of children and the 

 bleating of goats, such a pandemonium of sounds is 

 seldom heard, so it would be a brave wild animal 

 indeed that did not get out of the vicinity as 

 soon as possible. I was standing at a corner of 

 the fence that composed the kraal ; it was made 

 of branches of the prickly mimosa, piled stiff and 

 solidly to the height of six feet, from the bottom 

 of which I concluded that the hyena must have 

 torn out a passage or undermined an entrance. In 



