I made no answer, for at that moment I heard a very curious sound, which
seemed to me to proceed from somewhere above the hut. Of what did it
remind me? Ah! I knew. It was like the sound of the dreadful laughter
of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads--Zikali, the "Thing-that-should-never-have-been-born."
Doubtless, however, it was only the cry of some storm-driven night bird.
Or perhaps it was an hyena that laughed--an hyena that scented death.