It did not depart, however, until after delivering a salute, that left our adventurers in greater doubt than ever of its true character. They had been debating among themselves whether it was a thing of the earth, of time, or something that belonged to eternity. They had seen it under a fair light, and could not decide. But now that they had heard it, had listened to a strain of loud cachinnation, scarce mocking the laughter of the maniac, there was no escaping from the conclusion that what they had seen was either Satan himself, or one of his Ethiopian satellites. CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. THE HUE AND CRY. As the strange creature that had threatened to dispute their passage was no longer in sight, and seemed, moreover, to have gone clear away, the three mids ceased to think any more of it; their minds being given to making their way over the ridge without being seen by the occupants of the encampment. Having returned their dirks to the sheath, they continued to advance towards the crest of the transverse sand-spur, as cautiously as at starting. It is possible they might have succeeded in crossing without being perceived, but for a circumstance of which they had taken too little heed. Only too well pleased, at seeing the strange quadruped make its retreat, they had been less affected by its parting salutation, weird and wild as this had sounded in their ears. But they had not thought of the effects which the same salute had produced upon the people of the Arab camp, causing all of them, as it did, to turn their eyes in the direction whence it was heard. To them there was no mystery in that screaming cachinnation. Unearthly as it had echoed in the ears of the three mids, it fell with a perfectly natural tone on those of the Arabs: for it was but one of the well-known voices of their desert home, recognised by them as the cry of the laughing hyena. The effect produced upon the encampment was twofold. The children straying outside the tents, like young chicks frightened by the swooping of a hawk, ran inward; while their mothers, after the manner of so many old hens, rushed forth to take them under their protection. The proximity of a hungry hyena, more especially one of the laughing species, was a circumstance to cause alarm. All the fierce creature required was a chance to close his strong vice-like jaws upon the limbs of one of those juvenile Ishmaelites, and that would be the last his mother would ever see of him. Knowing this, the screech of the hyena had produced a momentary commotion among the women and children of the encampment. Neither had the men listened to it unmoved. In hopes of procuring its skin for house or tent furniture, and its flesh for food, for these hungry wanderers will eat anything, several had seized hold of their long guns, and rushed forth from among the tents.