AN OMINOUS SHADOW. 



207 



broken except by the mellow cooing of a dove or 

 two beneath, or the occasional chatter of the beautiful 

 bronze-green parroquets peculiar to this part of the 

 world. The sun by this time was rapidly declining, 

 and the toiit ensemble formed a scene of loveliness 

 that an admirer of Nature in its primitive state would 

 have gone into ecstasies over. 



This very absence of intrusion on my privacy, I 

 suppose it was that caused me again and again to 

 revert to the dangerous position the Bush-boy was 

 in, if by any chance the female caracal gained access 

 to her children. Possibly fancy made me believe his 

 position worse than it actually was, for in my mind I 

 could see the naked youth fighting for life in a space 

 so confined that his usual activity of body would be 

 quite thrown away, and only armed with a weapon 

 scarcely superior to an ordinary pocket-knife, while 

 his arms would probably be so restricted as to render 

 him unable to use them effectively. 



During this rather unpleasant study, a shadow 

 suddenly passed over me ; at first I thought it might 

 have been caused by an aas-vogel (vulture), but as 

 nothing, however trifling, must be disregarded in 

 these maiden hunting lands, I raised my eyes cautiously 



