In less than a week from that time, the jackals and hyenas were quarrelling over their bones.

Even at that very moment, whilst he watched them browsing, the poison was entering their veins, and their death-wounds were being inflicted.

Alas! alas! another blow awaited Von Bloom.
The field-cornet had noticed, now and again, that the horses seemed uneasy as they fed.

At times they started suddenly, whisked their long tails, and rubbed their heads against the bushes.
"Some fly is troubling them," thought he, and had no more uneasiness about the matter.
It was just that--just a fly that was troubling them.

Had Von Bloom known what that fly was, he would have felt a very different concern about his horses.