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The ti htly in a clear sky, and as there was no wind the silence seeh of an occasional hyena and now

and again for a sound which I took for the coughing of a distant lion,

there was no stir between sleeping earth and moonlit heaven in which

little clouds floated beneath the pale stars

At length I thought that I heard a noise, a kind of rew, it developed

It sounded like a thousand sticks tapping upon sorow, and I knew the sound for that of the

beating hoofs of ani Then there were isolated noises,

very faint and thin; theythat I could

not mistake--shots fired at a distance So the business was afoot; the

cattle were

for it but to wait

The excitement was very fierce; it seemed to consu upon the rocks grew louder until

it ed into a kind of rumble, mixed with an echo as of that of very

distant thunder, which presently I knew to be not thunder, but the

bellowing of a thousand frightened beasts