WILD BOGY-MEN. 101 
She crouched. The long hindlegs drew 
up like tense springs. The cruel cat’s eyes 
narrowed, focused on the ears. 
And in that instant the serval kitten 
screamed. 
No one could mistake the meaning of that 
scream. I think even the fawn knew its 
meaning, but instinct held him fixed as in a 
vice. It was not his scream, anyway. 
The mother-serval moved from the spot 
where she had crouched to a spot beside her 
kitten, without appearing to have done so, in 
about the duration of one wink. Then she 
rebounded with equal economy of time into 
the ‘ bush,’ spitting. Her kitten had received 
one crunch in the jaws of a spotted hyena. 
Two crunches are rarely necessary from a 
spotted hyena. Even in the case of the 
thigh-bone of an ox, a second crunch would 
be quite superfluous. 
Time passed, as time does in the wild, with- 
out count. It was dark soon, lit by a yellow 
moon. 
Things rustled strangely in the dark, and 
once a twig snapped. Shadows appeared once 
or twice like phantoms, and were silently with- 
drawn. Once the fawn, still + freezing,’ heard 
something sniff audibly within a yard. 
Then the little beast’s blood nearly dried up 
