about midnight
Oliver West was sleeping soundly that night from sheer fatigue ; but all the same his slumber was not pleasant , for though his body was resting his brain was hard at work . Before an hour had passed he was conscious of being cold , and in a dreamy way he felt that he ought to do what under the circumstances was impossible : that is to say , put more clothes over him , or , failing them , as he had no more , roll himself over and over in the blanket that he had brought strapped to his saddle-bow and only thrown over him when he lay down to sleep . But his body was so steeped in sleep that he did not stir , and suffered from the freezing air of the night -- so tremendous a change from the torrid heat of mid-day out on the veldt . Later on , about midnight , the impression came upon him that he could hear a lion far away , seeming to make the earth quiver beneath him by giving forth in the fierce beast 's strangely ventriloquial way its awe-inspiring roar , so puzzling to the listener as to whether it is far off or near . And even in his dreamy state West found himself doubting that it could be a lion 's roar that he heard so near to where civilisation had driven off most of the savage beasts of the plain . But the roar came again , nearer , and in his dreams he felt sure that he was right , and he recalled , still sleeping , the fact that now and then the king of beasts followed one or other of the straggling herds of antelopes quite close to the Boers ' farms . Then the curious barking roar ceased , and with it consciousness for some time .