fire. This kept the creature at a safe distance, although he began
trotting around and around, as if to seek some unguarded loophole
through which to compass the destruction of the man who had thus
invaded his dominions.

The tread of the animal resembled the rattling of raindrops upon the
leaves, while its silence, its gliding motion, convinced the
inexperienced Irishman of the brute's exceedingly dangerous character.
His rifle was too much injured to be of use and he could therefore
only keep his precocious foe at a safe distance by piling on fuel
until the camp-fire burned defiantly.

There was no more sleep for Teddy that night. He had received too
great a shock, and the impending danger was too imminent for him to do
any thing but watch, so long as darkness and the animal remained.
Several times he thought there was evidence of the presence of another
beast, but he failed to discover it, and finally believed he had been
mistaken.

It was a tiresome and lonely occupation, this incessant watching, and
Teddy had recourse to several expedients to while away the weary
hours. The first and most natural was that of singing. He trolled
forth every song that he could recall to remembrance, and it may be
truly said that he awoke echoes in those forest-aisles never before
heard there. As in the pauses he heard the volume of sound that seemed
quivering and swaying among the tree-trunks, like the confined air in
an organ, he was awed into silence.

"Whist, ye son of Patrick McFadden; don't ye hear the responses all
around ye, as if the spirits were in the organ loft, thinkin' ye a