He kept going faster and faster, occasionally letting out one deep, short yelp.

The other hounds did not give tongue, but eager, excited, baffled, kept at his heels.

The ravine was long, and the wash at the bottom, up which the lion had proceeded, turned and twisted round boulders large as houses, and led through dense growths of some short, rough shrub.

Now and then the lion tracks showed plainly in the sand.

For five miles or more Sounder led us up the ravine, which began to contract and grow steep.