"Let me come, sir, along with Mr Dean, sir," cried the sailor. "No," said Sir James. "Thank you all the same, my man, I have my rifle ready loaded. What has become of yours, Mark?" "I have got it, uncle," cried Dean. "Give me your pouch and the cartridges, Mark. I want to load." "But where's your piece, Dean?" said Sir James. "Mine, uncle--mine? I came out in such a hurry that I forgot all about it." "Bah! Well, here's Mark's pouch. Take it and load." "Yes, uncle," replied the boy hastily. "Why, Mark, I only heard one shot. Did you fire both barrels?" "Eh? I don't know. Perhaps I did." "Well," said the doctor, a few minutes later, as he stood with Sir James and Dean, "I don't think that there is any occasion to be uneasy about Mark. He can't be injured, or he wouldn't be so calm. The animals seem to be settling down again, and that's a sure sign that there is nothing near to alarm them. What I wonder at is that we heard no sign from the bullocks--" "Or from the ponies," said Sir James. "--Before Mark fired." "Then I suppose," said Sir James, "that we may all go and lie down till you rouse us up again, doctor." "Which I certainly shall if there is any cause." The alarm had not proved serious enough to interfere with the sleep of the camp, with one exception, and Mark formed that exception, for during the second watch either Dean or Mark's father went to the waggon as quietly as possible to look after the injured lad, and oddly enough had the same report to give, that Mark was sleeping easily and well, while as soon as each visit had been paid the boy turned over, exclaiming, "Bother! Anyone would think the lion had half eaten me. I wish they would not make such a fuss." The last time, when Dean was coming off duty, it was to find his cousin's eyes wide open. "Oh, you are awake now," he cried. "How are you?" "Oh, all right. Seen any more lions?" "No; it's been quite still all the rest of the night." "Father all right?" "Yes; he will be here directly. I say, Mark, let's look where you were hurt before he comes." But this was not achieved, Sir James darkening the opening of the waggon tilt just as the neck of his son's shirt was thrown open, to display a big blackening bruise upon the boy's right shoulder, and further examination revealed a small hole where a thorn had penetrated, and some scratches upon the boy's hands. "Are those claw marks?" said Dean excitedly. "Pooh! Nonsense!" said a voice which made all look up, to see the doctor climbing into the waggon. He too examined the injuries, and exclaimed, "You are sure you saw some animal about to attack the ponies?" "Yes, certain," said Mark. "And you fired at it?" "Well, yes," said Mark; "you heard me, and came." "Exactly," said the doctor drily; "but are you sure that the beast, whatever it was, sprang at you?" "I saw it rear up as I fired," replied Mark, "and I felt a tremendous blow on the shoulder. Yes: here's the bruise."