A few nights later Mark, who had just finished his portion of the nightly watch, called up Dan and made his report that all had gone well till about an hour before, when he fancied he had seen something creeping along through the bushes just beyond the camp. "Jackal," said Dan. "No; it seemed too big." "Well, didn't the horses seem uneasy." "No." "Fancy, perhaps." "Well, it may have been, and I half thought so then, else I should have roused someone up." "Which way did it go, sir?" "Right into the middle of the temple square." "Well, it wouldn't have been a black, because if it had been one of them he would have made for the open." "The doctor said that most likely there would be blacks about." "Well, but," said Dan, "no one has seen a sign of anyone but our chaps." "That's true," replied Mark, "but there must be tribes about here, and they'd see us before we saw them." "Yes, sir; that's pretty sure, and it might be one of them come in the dark scouting to see what we are like, and how many there are of us." "That doesn't sound pleasant, Dan. We don't want any company of that sort." "No, sir. But look here; I think I have got it. Are you sure it wasn't a leopard?" "I can't be sure, because it is too dark to see spots." "Well, was it a human, sir?" "I don't think so, because it was going on all fours." "Oh, well, sir, the niggers are clever enough in that way. Both Mak and the little chap can run along like dogs and jump over a tree trunk or a big stone. It is wonderful what strength some of these half savage chaps have in their arms. Being a sailor and doing a great deal going up aloft has made me pretty clever hanging by one's hands or holding on by one's eyelids, as we say, at sea, while we furl a sail; but I am nowhere alongside of our Mak." "But you as good as said you had an idea, Dan." "Well, I have, sir, and I got it only the other day when I was down yonder right away towards the end of the ruins, seeing how far I could go without getting lost. I'd quite forgot all about it till you began to talk. I caught sight of something--just a peep of it as it looked up at me and then ran in amongst the rocks and bushes. I hadn't got a gun with me, and perhaps I had no business to be loafing about." "Oh, never mind that," said Mark. "What was it you saw?" "Well, it was something like a good big dog, but I had no chance of seeing it well; and I was just going to turn back when there it was again, or another like it, squatting on a stone at the end of one of them big walls; and when it saw I was watching, it was out of sight directly." "Well, that doesn't help us much," said Mark impatiently. "Don't it, sir? I thought it did, for it seems to me that it was what you saw to-night." "Maybe," said Mark; "but what was it?" "Well, I will tell you, sir. It was one of them big monkeys as Buck Denham talks about." "I never knew him talk about any."