midnight
It was a dispirited company which went into camp , waterless and hungry , in the dense jungle . Attracted by the horses , lions roared about the boma , and to their hideous din was added the shrill neighs of the terror-stricken beasts they hunted . There was little sleep for man or beast , and the sentries were doubled that there might be enough on duty both to guard against the sudden charge of an overbold , or overhungry lion , and to keep the fire blazing which was an even more effectual barrier against them than the thorny boma . It was well past midnight , and as yet Jane Clayton , notwithstanding that she had passed a sleepless night the night before , had scarcely more than dozed . A sense of impending danger seemed to hang like a black pall over the camp . The veteran troopers of the black emperor were nervous and ill at ease . Abdul Mourak left his blankets a dozen times to pace restlessly back and forth between the tethered horses and the crackling fire .