I don't `hanker arter' snakes, but I'd sooner sit down to a section of boa-constrictor roasted in the ashes than starve." "I don't think I would." "Wait till you are starving, my lad." "Should you say there are any big dangerous animals ?" continued Mark, after a pause; "lions, or tigers, or leopards ?" "Certainly not; but there may be rhinoceros or elephant, if the island is big enough, or near the mainland, and--what the dickens is that ?" He jumped up as rapidly as Mark sprang to his feet, for just then there came, apparently not from very far off, so terrible a roar that the major ran to the nearest gun, examined the loading, and then stood with the weapon cocked.
Mark involuntarily caught his arm.
"Don't do that, boy," said the major in a low angry voice.

"That is what a woman would do--try to find protection, and hinder the man.

Get a weapon if it's only your knife." Mark's pale face flushed, and he caught up a gun, to stand beside the major, as the terrific harsh yelling roar came again.
It was a sound horrible enough to startle the stoutest hearted, so weird and peculiar was it in its tones; while the silence which succeeded was even more terror inspiring, for it suggested that the wild beast which had uttered the cry might have caught sight of them, and be coming nearer.
The sound seemed to come from the rocky rapidly-rising ground beyond the narrow tree-fern shaded gorge where the spring had been found; but though they listened intently for a few moments, there was utter stillness till all at once there was a fresh sound, something between a sigh and a moan, such as an animal might utter if it had been struck down.
Mark's eyes swept the land beyond the cocoa-nut grove wildly; but he could see nothing save the rocks and flowering shrubs; then he glanced at the shaded sands where their friends were sleeping, but the sound had not awakened them.
"I can't make it out, Mark," said the major, as he keenly swept the place as far as the trees would allow.

"Couldn't be fancy, could it ?" The answer came in a piteous burst of howls, followed by a hissing sound, and directly after Bruff appeared, tearing along on three legs, his last tucked out of sight, the rough shaggy hair which formed a ruff about his neck bristling; and close behind him, Jacko running as if for his life.
"No," said the major; "it couldn't be fancy.

They heard it too." Bruff ran up to Mark, and crouched at his feet shivering and whining; while Jacko kept running from one to the other, chattering in a low tone and staring wildly about as if in a terrible state of excitement.
"Can you hear anything coming, Mark ?" said the major.