250 



THE DARKENING SKY. 



The leopard kittens were as frisky as a couple of young domestic cats. They 

 were continually frolicking, tumbling about and playfully using their teeth and 

 claws upon each other. They did not object to a little caressing, but occasionally 

 gave the lads a taste of what they would soon be able to do with the weapons 

 furnished by nature. 



Had the juvenile lion been favored with a brother or sister, he would have 

 displayed an equal degree of friskiness, but, though alone, he appeared to b 

 satisfied and comfortable, caring nothing for the loss of his parents, so long as his 



rations were forthcoming. 



Dick Brownell was sure the little 

 fellow was beginning to learn to recog- 

 nize and show him affection, but Bob 

 scouted the idea. The creature, he 

 insisted, hadn't enough sense to dis- 

 criminate, else it would have fixed upon 

 him as the object of its friendship. 



Bob was willing to admit that the 

 porcupine displayed a partiality for his 

 cousin, and he urged him to take the 

 plaything in his arms and fondle it, 

 with a view of cultivating its lovely 

 disposition. 



It was hard to look upon the mother 

 giraffe and its young one without being 

 touched. They showed no fear on the 

 approach of any of their captors, and 

 the parent sometimes reached down its 

 long neck to invite Bob or Dick to pat 

 its forehead. The little one would have 

 followed them about the encampment, 

 had they allowed it freedom. It surely 

 was as contented as if running with its 

 mother over the plains or through the 

 THE AYR-AYR. open jungles. 



Since there was little expected of the others, our friends were not disappointed. 



There was nothing done in the way of hunting on the day succeeding the visit 

 from the baboons. The captured one was so surly that none of the captors at- 

 tempted any advances, but he was left to sulk alone until he should recover his 

 spirits, if indeed he ever would do so. 



But the looks of the heavens presaged a tempest, and, as I have already stated, 

 they are sometimes of the most fearful character in that portion of the Dark Con- 

 tinent. 



Extra care was taken in preparing for it. The stockade was examined at 



