Swiss Family Robinson

laughter continued, and the beasts became unmanageable.
    `Something is very far wrong!' cried Fritz. `I cannot leave the animals; but while I unharness them, do you, Franz, take the dogs, and advance cautiously to see what is the matter.'
    Without a moment's hesitation, Franz made his way among the bushes with his gun, and closely followed by the dogs; until, through an opening in the thicket, he could see, at the distance of about forty paces, an enormous hyaena , in the most wonderful state of excitement; dancing round a lamb just killed, and uttering, from time to time, the ghastly hysterical laughter which had pealed through the forest.
    The beast kept running backwards and forwards, rising on its hind legs, and then rapidly whirling round and round, nodding its head, and going through most frantic and ludicrous antics.
    Franz kept his presence of mind very well; for he watched till, calming down, the hyaena began with horrid growls to tear its prey; and then, firing steadily both barrels, he broke its foreleg, and wounded it in the breast.
    Meanwhile Fritz, having unyoked the oxen and secured them to trees, hurried to his brother's assistance. The dogs and the dying hyaena were by this time engaged in mortal strife; but the latter, although it severely wounded both Floss and Bruno, speedily succumbed, and was dead when the boys reached the spot.
    They raised a shout of triumph, which guided Jack to the scene of action; and their first care was for the dogs, whose wounds they dressed before minutely examining the hyaena . It was as large as a wild boar; long stiff bristles formed a mane on its neck, its colour was grey marked with black, the teeth and jaws were of extraordinary strength, the thighs muscular and sinewy, the claws remarkably strong and sharp altogether. But for his wounds, he would certainly have been more than a match for the dogs.
    After unloading the cart at the farm, the boys returned for the carcase of the tiger-wolf, as it is sometimes called, and occupied themselves in skinning it during the remainder of the day, when after dispatching the carrier-pigeon to Rockburg , they retired to rest on their bearskin rugs, to dream of adventures past and future.
    The following day they devised no less a scheme than to survey the shores of Wood Lake , and place marks wherever the surrounding marsh was practicable and might be crossed either to reach the water or leave it.
    Fritz in the cajack , and the boys on shore, carefully examined the ground together; and when they found firm footing to the water's edge, the spot was indicated by planting a tall bamboo, bearing on high a bundle of reeds and branches.
    They succeeded in capturing three young black swans, after considerable resistance from the old ones. They were afterwards brought to Rockburg , and detained as ornaments to Safety Bay .
    Presently a beautiful heron thrust his long neck from among the reeds, to ascertain what all the noise on the lake was about.
    Before he could satisfy his curiosity, Fritz unhooded his eagle, and though vainly he flapped and struggled, his legs and wings were gently but firmly bound, and he had to own himself vanquished, and submit to the inspection of his delighted captors.
    It was their turn to be alarmed next, for a large powerful animal came puffing with a curious whistling sound through the dense thicket of reeds, passing close by and sorely discomposing them by its sudden appearance. It was out of sight immediately, before they could summon the dogs, and from their description it must have been a tapir, the colour dark brown, and in form resembling a young rhinoceros, but with no horn on the nose, and the upper lip prolonged into a trunk something like that of an elephant on a smaller scale. It is a gentle creature, but when attacked becomes a fierce opponent, and can wound dogs dangerously with its powerful teeth. The tapir can swim and dive with perfect ease, and abounds in the densely wooded swamps and rivers of tropical America .
    Fritz in his cajack followed for a time the direction in which the tapir proceeded, but saw no more of it. Meanwhile the other two boys returned to the farm by the rice-fields, and there fell in with a flock of cranes, five or six of which they caught alive, among them two demoiselle or Numidian cranes.
    These birds they shot at with arrows arranged in a skilful and original way, with loops of cord dipped in birdlime attached to them, so that it often happened that the bird aimed