There were wild dogs and a hyena, and for a time there was a great yelping and snarling that awakened on the instant the whole circle of sleeping Fire-Men.
Once a lion and a lioness stood beneath our tree and gazed out with bristling hair and blinking eyes.

The lion licked his chops and was nervous with eagerness, as if he wanted to go forward and make a meal.
But the lioness was more cautious.

It was she that discovered us, and the pair stood and looked up at us, silently, with twitching, scenting nostrils.

Then they growled, looked once again at the fire, and turned away into the forest.
For a much longer time Lop-Ear and I remained and watched.

Now and again we could hear the crashing of heavy bodies in the thickets and underbrush, and from the darkness of the other side, across the circle, we could see eyes gleaming in the firelight.