Adventures in Many Lands

ersonally undergone with wild beasts; but probably none of them ever went through an experie

urrences to him. The trapper's life is infinitely more exciting and dangerous than the hunter's, inasmuch as the latter hunts to kill, while the trapper hunts to capture, and the relative risks are not, ther

by the intense heat and his fatigue, he lay down and fell asleep-about the most dangerous thing a solitary traveller in the interior of Africa

that no human being ever gave utterance to quite such a sound; in fact, his trained ear told him it was the cry of the spotted hyena. Now thoroughly awake, he sat up and sa

ick time, and thus destroyed himself. But Spencer very well knew from their manner that they were but the advance-guard of a pack. The appearance of the pack, numbering about one hundred, coi

stic of the hyena to reject flesh that is not putrid. He threw himself down again, and remained motionless, hoping the beasts wo

eir foul breath on his neck, as they sniffed at him, snapping, snarling, laughing; but he did not move. One of them took a critical bite at his arm; but he did not stir. They seemed nonplussed. A

between them, sometimes fairly carrying him, sometimes simply dragging him, now and again dropping him for a moment to refix their teeth more firmly in his flesh. Believing him to b

but the distance must have been considerable, for night was over the land and the sky sparkling with stars before the beasts finally halted; and then they dropped him in what he knew, by the horrible and overp

he was, and exhausted, he knew it would be suicide to attempt to tackle his janitors. He could only wait on chance. Once or twice during the day the beasts tried him with their teeth, giving unmistaka

er hour the animal stayed on duty, never going farther than the mouth of the cave. When the second morning broke, however, the hyena grew very restless, going out and remaining away for brief periods. But it a

ng. After about an hour of this suspense he crept to the mouth of the cave. No living creature was within sight. He got upon his faltering feet, an

without being discovered, he was found the same day by a party of Boers, who dressed his wounds, gave

wrist, ankle, arms, and thigh still bear the marks of the hideous teeth which,