"The jackal he bite, and snap, and howl, and then he say he'd only wished he had a chance of a fight with the birds. "`What's that spot I see in the sky?' said the netikee, looking up. "The jackal look up and see the eagle swooping down, and he bolt into the earth. Bymby he poke his head out. `Is he gone?' he said. `You see, me and the eagle had a dispute over a lamb which I took away from him, and I thought he would feel uncomfortable if he saw me. What did he say?' "`The eagle said he willing to fight if the lion leads the animals; but he's not going to demean himself against any jackal trash.' "The jackal grinned. `Well,' said he, `the lion won't fight, he's just been feeding, and the eagle needn't trouble about it. You get all the partridges, the pheasants, ducks, knorhaan, guinea fowl--the more the merrier, and I'll bring the red cats, the muishonden, the wild dogs, the tiger-cat, and we'll meet here to-morrow.' "The netikee flip his tail about, and say, `Yes, he's willing to have a battle,' and the jackal with a grin he run off to call all his friends to a big feast off the birds. The netikee just bunch up his feathers, tuck his head under his wing, and go to sleep. Next morning before sunrise he fly to the bush, and he hear the jackal making a plan. "`You keep your eye on my tail,' said the jackal. `Watch my tail,' said the jackal, `I will hold it up straight like a banner, and you must follow it into the thick of the fight.' "The netikee flew away off to a honey-tree, and he had a word with the bees: then he fly back to the thorn bush with a clump of bees with him. "Bymby here comes the jackal with his bushy tail held up straight like a banner, and behind him come a green-eyed, silent, swift, cruel pack of wild-cats, red cats, grey cats, and wild dogs. "`There they come,' said the nekitee; `see the jackal, with his tail up. Stick his tail, creep into his hair, and make him yell.' So the netikee left his perch and flew to meet the animals all by himself, for they could not see the bees; but the bees they swarmed into the big bushy tail, and the next minute there was the jackal scooting off across the veld with his tail between his legs. Next thing you know the animals is all scuttling home. "That's why the netikee is so perky." "Jes' like little men," says Abe Pike. CHAPTER EIGHT. ABE PIKE AND THE HONEY-BIRD. In the night we heard the loud barking of a baboon, and next morning Uncle Abe, accompanied by the witch-doctor, Bolo, started back for his solitary homestead, saying that he had received a call from his familiar. This I regarded as an excuse, and judged that the two old men were bent, like boys, on some fishing excursion. Strangely enough, however, the black tiger disappeared at the same time, leaving the live stock free from his ravages--though human thieves as mischievous were afoot, and during the week paid a visit in the night to the cattle kraal, "lifting" a fine cow with a young heifer calf.