CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
STALKING THE OUREBI.
Next morning the hyenas and jackals had disappeared from the scene, and, to the surprise of all, not a particle of flesh was left upon the bones of the elephant.

There lay the huge skeleton picked clean, the bones even polished white by the rough tongues of the hyenas.

Nay, still stranger to relate, two of the horses--these poor brutes had been long since left to themselves,--had been pulled down during the night, and their skeletons lay at a short distance from the camp as cleanly picked as that of the elephant! All this was evidence of the great number of ravenous creatures that must have their home in that quarter,--evidence, too, that game animals abounded, for where these are not numerous the beasts of prey cannot exist.

Indeed, from the quantity of tracks that were seen upon the shores of the vley, it was evident that animals of various kinds had drunk there during the night.

There was the round solid hoof of the quagga, and his near congener the dauw; and there was the neat hoof-print of the gemsbok, and the larger track of the eland; and among these Von Bloom did not fail to notice the spoor of the dreaded lion.
Although they had not heard his roaring that night, they had no doubt but there were plenty of his kind in that part of the country.