88 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 



sleeve, and saying, " Wake ! wake ! wake ! " I 

 "awakened," and took the watch. My rifle lay 

 beside me on my right, the oryx trophies on my left. 

 The fire was piled up, shedding shafts of light into the 

 fearsome darkness. The ponies stood dejectedly. 

 This tense silent watching is more of a trial than play- 

 acting sleep. I fixed my eyes on the inky blackness 

 ahead, and it was not long before my fancy peopled 

 the shadows with lurking forms. I chid myself. 

 Suddenly I could make out two blazing lights, gleaming 

 like little lamps. The eyes of some preying animal. 

 I sidled over to the sleeping Clarence, and pushed 

 him. He wakened instantly. I told him of the eyes. 

 u Shebel," he said. A leopard ! This was nice, but 

 why bother us when the remains of a whole oryx was 

 so close to hand. We sat and waited. The eyes 

 again — sometimes at a lower level than others, as 

 though the beast crouched as he gazed. " Let us fire 

 together," I said. 



At my soft " One, two, three," we blazed away at the 

 twin specks of light. A scuffle, then a hideous scream- 

 ing cry, that echoed again in the stillness. Worse 

 remains behind. The ponies thoroughly upset by the 

 unusual sounds of the jungle at night, and not expect- 

 ing the enormous report, simply stampeded before we 

 had time to get to them. They made off in mad terror, 

 and there we were in a worse hole than ever. Sleep 

 was out of the question. We made some more soup 

 to pass the hours, julienne and mulligatawny this 

 time, and after that I fell to talking to Clarence 

 about England. He asked many questions that he 



