A TALE OF THREE LIONS By H. Rider Haggard CHAPTER I. THE INTEREST ON TEN SHILLINGS Most of you will have heard that Allan Quatermain, who was one of theparty that discovered King Solomon's mines some little time ago, and whoafterwards came to live in England near his friend Sir Henry Curtis. He went back to the wilderness again, as these old hunters almostinvariably do, on one pretext or another. [*] They cannot endurecivilization for very long, its noise and racket and the omnipresenceof broad-clothed humanity proving more trying to their nerves than thedangers of the desert. I think that they feel lonely here, for it isa fact that is too little understood, though it has often been stated, that there is no loneliness like the loneliness of crowds, especiallyto those who are unaccustomed to them. "What is there in the world, " oldQuatermain would say, "so desolate as to stand in the streets of a greatcity and listen to the footsteps falling, falling, multitudinous as therain, and watch the white line of faces as they hurry past, you know notwhence, you know not whither? They come and go, their eyes meet yourswith a cold stare, for a moment their features are written on your mind, and then they are gone for ever. You will never see them again; theywill never see you again; they come up out of the unknown, and presentlythey once more vanish into the unknown, taking their secrets with them. Yes, that is loneliness pure and undefiled; but to one who knows andloves it, the wilderness is not lonely, because the spirit of natureis ever there to keep the wanderer company. He finds companions in thewinds--the sunny streams babble like Nature's children at his feet; highabove them, in the purple sunset, are domes and minarets and palaces, such as no mortal man has built, in and out of whose flaming doors theangels of the sun seem to move continually. And there, too, is the wildgame, following its feeding-grounds in great armies, with the springbuckthrown out before for skirmishers; then rank upon rank of long-facedblesbuck, marching and wheeling like infantry; and last the shiningtroops of quagga, and the fierce-eyed shaggy vilderbeeste to take, as itwere, the place of the cossack host that hangs upon an army's flanks. [*] This of course was written before Mr. Quatermain's account of the adventures in the newly-discovered country of Zu-Vendis of himself, Sir Henry Curtis, and Capt. John Good had been received in England. --Editor. "Oh, no, " he would say, "the wilderness is not lonely, for, my boy, remember that the further you get from man, the nearer you grow to God, "and though this is a saying that might well be disputed, it is one I amsure that anybody will easily understand who has watched the sun riseand set on the limitless deserted plains, and seen the thunder chariotsof the clouds roll in majesty across the depths of unfathomable sky. Well, at any rate we went back again, and now for many months I haveheard nothing at all of him, and to be frank, I greatly doubt if anybodywill ever hear of him again. I fear that the wilderness, that has for somany years been a mother to him, will now also prove his grave and thegrave of those who accompanied him, for the quest upon which he and theyhave started is a wild one indeed. But while he was in England for those three years or so betweenhis return from the successful discovery of the wise king's buriedtreasures, and the death of his only son, I saw a great deal of oldAllan Quatermain. I had known him years before in Africa, and afterhe came home, whenever I had nothing better to do, I used to run up toYorkshire and stay with him, and in this way I at one time and anotherheard many of the incidents of his past life, and most curious some ofthem were. No man can pass all those years following the rough existenceof an elephant-hunter without meeting with many strange adventures, and in one way and another old Quatermain has certainly seen his share. Well, the story that I am going to tell you in the following pages isone of the later of these adventures, though I forget the exact yearin which it happened, at any rate I know that it was the only trip uponwhich he took his son Harry (who is since dead) with him, and that Harrywas then about fourteen. And now for the story, which I will repeat, asnearly as I can, in the words in which Hunter Quatermain told it to meone night in the old oak-panelled vestibule of his house in Yorkshire. We were talking about gold-mining-- "Gold-mining!" he broke in; "ah! yes, I once went gold-mining atPilgrims' Rest in the Transvaal, and it was after that that we had thebusiness about Jim-Jim and the lions. Do you know Pilgrim's Rest? Well, it is, or was, one of the queerest little places you ever saw. The townitself was pitched in a stony valley, with mountains all about it, andin the middle of such scenery as one does not often get the chance ofseeing. Many and many is the time that I have thrown down my pick andshovel in disgust, clambered out of my claim, and walked a couple ofmiles or so to the top of some hill. Then I would lie down in the grassand look out over the glorious stretch of country--the smiling valleys, the great mountains touched with gold--real gold of the sunset, andclothed in sweeping robes of bush, and stare into the depths of theperfect sky above; yes, and thank Heaven I had got away from the cursingand the coarse jokes of the miners, and the voices of those BasutuKaffirs as they toiled in the sun, the memory of which is with me yet. "Well, for some months I dug away patiently at my claim, till the verysight of a pick or of a washing-trough became hateful to me. A hundredtimes a day I lamented my own folly in having invested eight hundredpounds, which was about all that I was worth at the time, in thisgold-mining. But like other better people before me, I had been bittenby the gold bug, and now was forced to take the consequences. I bought aclaim out of which a man had made a fortune--five or six thousand poundsat least--as I thought, very cheap; that is, I gave him five hundredpounds down for it. It was all that I had made by a very roughyear's elephant-hunting beyond the Zambesi, and I sighed deeply andprophetically when I saw my successful friend, who was a Yankee, sweepup the roll of Standard Bank notes with the lordly air of the man whohas made his fortune, and cram them into his breeches pockets. 'Well, ' Isaid to him--the happy vendor--'it is a magnificent property, and I onlyhope that my luck will be as good as yours has been. ' "He smiled; to my excited nerves it seemed that he smiled ominously, as he answered me in a peculiar Yankee drawl: 'I guess, stranger, as Iain't the one to make a man quarrel with his food, more especial whenthere ain't no more going of the rounds; and as for that there claim, well, she's been a good nigger to me; but between you and me, stranger, speaking man to man, now that there ain't any filthy lucre between us toobscure the features of the truth, I guess she's about worked out!' "I gasped; the fellow's effrontery took the breath out of me. Only fiveminutes before he had been swearing by all his gods--and they appearedto be numerous and mixed--that there were half a dozen fortunes left inthe claim, and that he was only giving it up because he was downrightweary of shovelling the gold out. "'Don't look so vexed, stranger, ' went on my tormentor, 'perhaps thereis some shine in the old girl yet; anyway you are a downright goodfellow, you are, therefore you will, I guess, have a real A1 opportunityof working on the feelings of Fortune. Anyway it will bring the muscleup upon your arm, for the stuff is uncommon stiff, and, what is more, you will in the course of a year earn a sight more than two thousanddollars in value of experience. ' "Then he went just in time, for in another moment I should have gone forhim, and I saw his face no more. "Well, I set to work on the old claim with my boy Harry and half a dozenKaffirs to help me, which, seeing that I had put nearly all my worldlywealth into it, was the least that I could do. And we worked, my word, we did work--early and late we went at it--but never a bit of gold didwe see; no, not even a nugget large enough to make a scarf-pin out of. The American gentleman had secured it all and left us the sweepings. "For three months this went on, till at last I had paid away all, orvery near all, that was left of her little capital in wages and food forthe Kaffirs and ourselves. When I tell you that Boer meal was sometimesas high as four pounds a bag, you will understand that it did not takelong to run through our banking account. "At last the crisis came. One Saturday night I had paid the men asusual, and bought a muid of mealie meal at sixty shillings for them tofill themselves with, and then I went with my boy Harry and sat on theedge of the great hole that we had dug in the hill-side, and which wehad in bitter mockery named Eldorado. There we sat in the moonlightwith our feet over the edge of the claim, and were melancholy enough foranything. Presently I pulled out my purse and emptied its contents intomy hand. There was a half-sovereign, two florins, ninepence in silver, no coppers--for copper practically does not circulate in South Africa, which is one of the things that make living so dear there--in allexactly fourteen and ninepence. "'There, Harry, my boy!' I said, 'that is the sum total of our worldlywealth; that hole has swallowed all the rest. ' "'By George!' said Master Harry; 'I say, father, you and I shall have tolet ourselves out to work with the Kaffirs and live on mealie pap, ' andhe sniggered at his unpleasant little joke. "But I was in no mood for joking, for it is not a merry thing to diglike anything for months and be completely ruined in the process, especially if you happen to dislike digging, and consequently I resentedHarry's light-heartedness. "'Be quiet, boy!' I said, raising my hand as though to give him a cuff, with the result that the half-sovereign slipped out of it and fell intothe gulf below. "'Oh, bother, ' said I, 'it's gone. ' "'There, Dad, ' said Harry, 'that's what comes of letting your angrypassions rise; now we are down to four and nine. ' "I made no answer to these words of wisdom, but scrambled down the steepsides of the claim, followed by Harry, to hunt for my little all. Well, we hunted and we hunted, but the moonlight is an uncertain thing to lookfor half-sovereigns by, and there was some loose soil about, for theKaffirs had knocked off working at this very spot a couple of hoursbefore. I took a pick and raked away the clods of earth with it, in thehope of finding the coin; but all in vain. At last in sheer annoyance Istruck the sharp end of the pickaxe down into the soil, which was of avery hard nature. To my astonishment it sunk in right up to the haft. "'Why, Harry, ' I said, 'this ground must have been disturbed!' "'I don't think so, father, ' he answered; 'but we will soon see, ' andhe began to shovel out the soil with his hands. 'Oh, ' he said presently, 'it's only some old stones; the pick has gone down between them, look!'and he began to pull at one of the stones. "'I say, Dad, ' he said presently, almost in a whisper, 'it's preciousheavy, feel it;' and he rose and gave me a round, brownish lump aboutthe size of a very large apple, which he was holding in both his hands. I took it curiously and held it up to the light. It _was_ very heavy. The moonlight fell upon its rough and filth-encrusted surface, and as Ilooked, curious little thrills of excitement began to pass through me. But I could not be sure. "'Give me your knife, Harry, ' I said. "He did so, and resting the brown stone on my knee I scratched at itssurface. Great heavens, it was soft! "Another second and the secret was out, we had found a great nugget ofpure gold, four pounds of it or more. 'It's gold, lad, ' I said, 'it'sgold, or I'm a Dutchman!' "Harry, with his eyes starting out of his head, glared down at thegleaming yellow scratch that I had made upon the virgin metal, and thenburst out into yell upon yell of exultation, which went ringing awayacross the silent claims like shrieks of somebody being murdered. "'Be quiet!' I said; 'do you want every thief on the fields after you?' "Scarcely were the words out of my mouth when I heard a stealthyfootstep approaching. I promptly put the big nugget down and sat on it, and uncommonly hard it was. As I did so I saw a lean dark face pokedover the edge of the claim and a pair of beady eyes searching us out. I knew the face, it belonged to a man of very bad character known asHandspike Tom, who had, I understood, been so named at the DiamondFields because he had murdered his mate with a handspike. He was now nodoubt prowling about like a human hyæna to see what he could steal. "'Is that you, 'unter Quatermain?' he said. "'Yes, it's I, Mr. Tom, ' I answered, politely. "'And what might all that there yelling be?' he asked. 'I was walkingalong, a-taking of the evening air and a-thinking on the stars, when I'ears 'owl after 'owl. ' "'Well, Mr. Tom, ' I answered, 'that is not to be wondered at, seeingthat like yourself they are nocturnal birds. ' "''Owl after 'owl!' he repeated sternly, taking no notice of myinterpretation, 'and I stops and says, "That's murder, " and I listensagain and thinks, "No, it ain't; that 'owl is the 'owl of hexultation;some one's been and got his fingers into a gummy yeller pot, I'll swear, and gone off 'is 'ead in the sucking of them. " Now, 'unter Quatermain, is I right? is it nuggets? Oh, lor!' and he smacked his lipsaudibly--'great big yellow boys--is it them that you have just been andtumbled across?' "'No, ' I said boldly, 'it isn't'--the cruel gleam in his black eyesaltogether overcoming my aversion to untruth, for I knew that if once hefound out what it was that I was sitting on--and by the way I haveheard of rolling in gold being spoken of as a pleasant process, but Icertainly do not recommend anybody who values comfort to try sittingon it--I should run a very good chance of being 'handspiked' before thenight was over. "'If you want to know what it was, Mr. Tom, ' I went on, with my politestair, although in agony from the nugget underneath--for I hold it isalways best to be polite to a man who is so ready with a handspike--'myboy and I have had a slight difference of opinion, and I was enforcingmy view of the matter upon him; that's all. ' "'Yes, Mr. Tom, ' put in Harry, beginning to weep, for Harry was a smartboy, and saw the difficulty we were in, 'that was it--I halloed becausefather beat me. ' "'Well, now, did yer, my dear boy--did yer? Well, all I can say is thata played-out old claim is a wonderful queer sort of place to come to forto argify at ten o'clock of night, and what's more, my sweet youth, ifever I should 'ave the argifying of yer'--and he leered unpleasantly atHarry--'yer won't 'oller in quite such a jolly sort 'o way. And now I'llbe saying good-night, for I don't like disturbing of a family party. No, I ain't that sort of man, I ain't. Good-night to yer, 'unterQuatermain--good-night to yer, my argified young one;' and Mr. Tomturned away disappointed, and prowled off elsewhere, like a humanjackal, to see what he could thieve or kill. "'Thank goodness!' I said, as I slipped off the lump of gold. 'Now, then, do you get up, Harry, and see if that consummate villain hasgone. ' Harry did so, and reported that he had vanished towards Pilgrim'sRest, and then we set to work, and very carefully, but trembling withexcitement, with our hands hollowed out all the space of ground intowhich I had struck the pick. Yes, as I hoped, there was a regular nestof nuggets, twelve in all, running from the size of a hazel-nut to thatof a hen's egg, though of course the first one was much larger thanthat. How they all came there nobody can say; it was one of thoseextraordinary freaks, with stories of which, at any rate, all peopleacquainted with alluvial gold-mining will be familiar. It turned outafterwards that the American who sold me the claim had in the same waymade his pile--a much larger one than ours, by the way--out of a singlepocket, and then worked for six months without seeing colour, afterwhich he gave it up. "At any rate, there the nuggets were, to the value, as it turned outafterwards, of about twelve hundred and fifty pounds, so that after allI took out of that hole four hundred and fifty pounds more than I putinto it. We got them all out and wrapped them up in a handkerchief, andthen, fearing to carry home so much treasure, especially as we knew thatMr. Handspike Tom was on the prowl, made up our minds to pass thenight where we were--a necessity which, disagreeable as it was, waswonderfully sweetened by the presence of that handkerchief full ofvirgin gold--the interest of my lost half-sovereign. "Slowly the night wore away, for with the fear of Handspike Tom beforemy eyes I did not dare to go to sleep, and at last the dawn came. I gotup and watched its growth, till it opened like a flower upon the easternsky, and the sunbeams began to spring up in splendour from mountain-topto mountain-top. I watched it, and as I did so it flashed upon me, witha complete conviction which I had not felt before, that I had had enoughof gold-mining to last me the rest of my natural life, and I then andthere made up my mind to clear out of Pilgrims' Rest and go and shootbuffalo towards Delagoa Bay. Then I turned, took the pick and shovel, and although it was a Sunday morning, woke up Harry and set to workto see if there were any more nuggets about. As I expected, there werenone. What we had got had lain together in a little pocket filled withsoil that felt quite different from the stiff stuff round and outsidethe pocket. There was not another trace of gold. Of course it ispossible that there were more pocketfuls somewhere about, but all I haveto say is I made up my mind that, whoever found them, I should not; and, as a matter of fact, I have since heard that this claim has been theruin of two or three people, as it very nearly was the ruin of me. "'Harry, ' I said presently, 'I am going away this week towards Delagoato shoot buffalo. Shall I take you with me, or send you down to Durban?' "'Oh, take me with you, father!' begged Harry, 'I want to kill abuffalo!' "'And supposing that the buffalo kills you instead?' I asked. "'Oh, never mind, ' he said, gaily, 'there are lots more where I camefrom. ' "I rebuked him for his flippancy, but in the end I consented to takehim. " CHAPTER II. WHAT WAS FOUND IN THE POOL "Something over a fortnight had passed since the night when I losthalf-a-sovereign and found twelve hundred and fifty pounds in lookingfor it, and instead of that horrid hole, for which, after all, Eldoradowas hardly a misnomer, a very different scene stretched away before usclad in the silver robe of the moonlight. We were camped--Harry andI, two Kaffirs, a Scotch cart, and six oxen--on the swelling side of agreat wave of bushclad land. Just where we had made our camp, however, the bush was very sparse, and only grew about in clumps, while hereand there were single flat-topped mimosa-trees. To our right a littlestream, which had cut a deep channel for itself in the bosom of theslope, flowed musically on between banks green with maidenhair, wildasparagus, and many beautiful grasses. The bed-rock here was redgranite, and in the course of centuries of patient washing the water hadhollowed out some of the huge slabs in its path into great troughs andcups, and these we used for bathing-places. No Roman lady, with herbaths of porphyry or alabaster, could have had a more delicious spot tobathe herself than we found within fifty yards of our skerm, or roughinclosure of mimosa thorn, that we had dragged together round the cartto protect us from the attacks of lions. That there were several ofthese brutes about, I knew from their spoor, though we had neither heardnor seen them. "Our bath was a little nook where the eddy of the stream had washed awaya mass of soil, and on the edge of it there grew a most beautiful oldmimosa thorn. Beneath the thorn was a large smooth slab of granitefringed all round with maidenhair and other ferns, that sloped gentlydown to a pool of the clearest sparkling water, which lay in a bowl ofgranite about ten feet wide by five feet deep in the centre. Here tothis slab we went every morning to bathe, and that delightful bath isamong the most pleasant of my hunting reminiscences, as it is also, forreasons which will presently appear, among the most painful. "It was a lovely night. Harry and I sat to the windward of the fire, where the two Kaffirs were busily employed in cooking some impala steaksoff a buck which Harry, to his great joy, had shot that morning, andwere as perfectly contented with ourselves and the world at large as twopeople could possibly be. The night was beautiful, and it would requiresomebody with more words on the tip of his tongue than I have todescribe properly the chastened majesty of those moonlit wilds. Away forever and for ever, away to the mysterious north, rolled the great bushocean over which the silence brooded. There beneath us a mile or more tothe right ran the wide Oliphant, and mirror-like flashed back the moon, whose silver spears were shivered on its breast, and then tossed intwisted lines of light far and wide about the mountains and the plain. Down upon the river-banks grew great timber-trees that through thestillness pointed solemnly to Heaven, and the beauty of the night layupon them like a cloud. Everywhere was silence--silence in the starreddepths, silence on the bosom of the sleeping earth. Now, if ever, greatthoughts might rise in a man's mind, and for a space he might forget hislittleness in the sense that he partook of the pure immensity about him. "'Hark! what was that?' "From far away down by the river there comes a mighty rolling sound, then another, and another. It is the lion seeking his meat. "I saw Harry shiver and turn a little pale. He was a plucky boy enough, but the roar of a lion heard for the first time in the solemn bush veldtat night is apt to shake the nerves of any lad. "'Lions, my boy, ' I said; 'they are hunting down by the river there;but I don't think that you need make yourself uneasy. We have been herethree nights now, and if they were going to pay us a visit I think thatthey would have done so before this. However, we will make up the fire. ' "'Here, Pharaoh, do you and Jim-Jim get some more wood before we go tosleep, else the cats will be purring round you before morning. ' "Pharaoh, a great brawny Swazi, who had been working for me at Pilgrims'Rest, laughed, rose, and stretched himself, then calling to Jim-Jim tobring the axe and a reim, started off in the moonlight towards a clumpof sugar-bush where we cut our fuel from some dead trees. He was afine fellow in his way, was Pharaoh, and I think that he had been namedPharaoh because he had an Egyptian cast of countenance and a royalsort of swagger about him. But his way was a somewhat peculiar way, onaccount of the uncertainty of his temper, and very few people could geton with him; also if he could find liquor he would drink like a fish, and when he drank he became shockingly bloodthirsty. These were his badpoints; his good ones were that, like most people of the Zulu blood, he became exceedingly attached if he took to you at all; he was ahard-working and intelligent man, and about as dare-devil and pluckya fellow at a pinch as I have ever had to do with. He was aboutfive-and-thirty years of age or so, but not a 'keshla' or ringed man. Ibelieve that he had got into trouble in some way in Swaziland, and theauthorities of his tribe would not allow him to assume the ring, andthat is why he came to work at the gold-fields. The other man, or ratherlad, Jim-Jim, was a Mapoch Kaffir, or Knobnose, and even in the light ofsubsequent events I fear I cannot speak very well of him. He was anidle and careless young rascal, and only that very morning I had to tellPharaoh to give him a beating for letting the oxen stray, which Pharaohdid with the greatest gusto, although he was by way of being very fondof Jim-Jim. Indeed, I saw him consoling Jim-Jim afterwards with a pinchof snuff from his own ear-box, whilst he explained to him that the nexttime it came in the way of duty to flog him, he meant to thrash him withthe other hand, so as to cross the old cuts and make a "pretty pattern"on his back. "Well, off they went, though Jim-Jim did not at all like leaving thecamp at that hour, even when the moonlight was so bright, and in duecourse returned safely enough with a great bundle of wood. I laughed atJim-Jim, and asked him if he had seen anything, and he said yes, he had;he had seen two large yellow eyes staring at him from behind a bush, andheard something snore. "As, however, on further investigation the yellow eyes and the snoreappeared to have existed only in Jim-Jim's lively imagination, I wasnot greatly disturbed by this alarming report; but having seen to themaking-up of the fire, got into the skerm and went quietly to sleep withHarry by my side. "Some hours afterwards I woke up with a start. I don't know what wokeme. The moon had gone down, or at least was almost hidden behind thesoft horizon of bush, only her red rim being visible. Also a wind hadsprung up and was driving long hurrying lines of cloud across the starrysky, and altogether a great change had come over the mood of the night. By the look of the sky I judged that we must be about two hours fromday-break. "The oxen, which were as usual tied to the disselboom of the Scotchcart, were very restless--they kept snuffling and blowing, and risingup and lying down again, so I at once suspected that they must windsomething. Presently I knew what it was that they winded, for withinfifty yards of us a lion roared, not very loud, but quite loud enough tomake my heart come into my mouth. "Pharaoh was sleeping on the other side of the cart, and, lookingbeneath it, I saw him raise his head and listen. "'Lion, Inkoos, ' he whispered, 'lion!' "Jim-Jim also jumped up, and by the faint light I could see that he wasin a very great fright indeed. "Thinking that it was as well to be prepared for emergencies, I toldPharaoh to throw wood upon the fire, and woke up Harry, who I verilybelieve was capable of sleeping happily through the crack of doom. He was a little scared at first, but presently the excitement of theposition came home to him, and he grew quite anxious to see his majestyface to face. I got my rifle handy and gave Harry his--a WestleyRichards falling block, which is a very useful gun for a youth, beinglight and yet a good killing rifle, and then we waited. "For a long time nothing happened, and I began to think that the bestthing we could do would be to go to sleep again, when suddenly I hearda sound more like a cough than a roar within about twenty yards ofthe skerm. We all looked out, but could see nothing; and then followedanother period of suspense. It was very trying to the nerves, thiswaiting for an attack that might be developed from any quarter or mightnot be developed at all; and though I was an old hand at this sort ofbusiness I was anxious about Harry, for it is wonderful how the presenceof anybody to whom one is attached unnerves a man in moments of danger. I know, although it was now chilly enough, I could feel the perspirationrunning down my nose, and in order to relieve the strain on my attentionemployed myself in watching a beetle which appeared to be attractedby the firelight, and was sitting before it thoughtfully rubbing hisantennæ against each other. "Suddenly, the beetle gave such a jump that he nearly pitched headlonginto the fire, and so did we all--gave jumps, I mean, and no wonder, for from right under the skerm fence there came a most frightful roar--aroar that literally made the Scotch cart shake and took the breath outof me. "Harry made an exclamation, Jim-Jim howled outright, while the pooroxen, who were terrified almost out of their hides, shivered and lowedpiteously. "The night was almost entirely dark now, for the moon had quite set, andthe clouds had covered up the stars, so that the only light we had camefrom the fire, which by this time was burning up brightly again. But, as you know, firelight is absolutely useless to shoot by, it is souncertain, and besides, it penetrates but a very little way into thedarkness, although if one is in the dark outside, one can see it fromfar away. "Presently the oxen, after standing still for a moment, suddenly windedthe lion and did what I feared they would do--began to 'skrek, ' that is, to try and break loose from the trektow to which they were tied, to rushoff madly into the wilderness. Lions know of this habit on the part ofoxen, which are, I do believe, the most foolish animals under the sun, a sheep being a very Solomon compared to them; and it is by no meansuncommon for a lion to get in such a position that a herd or span ofoxen may wind him, skrek, break their reims, and rush off into the bush. Of course, once there, they are helpless in the dark; and then the lionchooses the one that he loves best and eats him at his leisure. "Well, round and round went our six poor oxen, nearly trampling us todeath in their mad rush; indeed, had we not hastily tumbled out of theway, we should have been trodden to death, or at the least seriouslyinjured. As it was, Harry was run over, and poor Jim-Jim being caughtby the trektow somewhere beneath the arm, was hurled right across theskerm, landing by my side only some paces off. "Snap went the disselboom of the cart beneath the transverse strain putupon it. Had it not broken the cart would have overset; as it was, in another minute, oxen, cart, trektow, reims, broken disselboom, andeverything were soon tied in one vast heaving, plunging, bellowing, andseemingly inextricable knot. "For a moment or two this state of affairs took my attention off fromthe lion that had caused it, but whilst I was wondering what on earthwas to be done next, and how we should manage if the cattle broke looseinto the bush and were lost--for cattle frightened in this manner willso straight away like mad things--my thoughts were suddenly recalled tothe lion in a very painful fashion. "For at that moment I perceived by the light of the fire a kind of gleamof yellow travelling through the air towards us. "'The lion! the lion!' holloaed Pharaoh, and as he did so, he, or rathershe, for it was a great gaunt lioness, half wild no doubt with hunger, lit right in the middle of the skerm, and stood there in the smoky gloomlashing her tail and roaring. I seized my rifle and fired it at her, but what between the confusion, my agitation, and the uncertain light, I missed her, and nearly shot Pharaoh. The flash of the rifle, however, threw the whole scene into strong relief, and a wild sight it was I cantell you--with the seething mass of oxen twisted all round the cart, insuch a fashion that their heads looked as though they were growing outof their rumps; and their horns seemed to protrude from their backs; thesmoking fire with just a blaze in the heart of the smoke; Jim-Jim in theforeground, where the oxen had thrown him in their wild rush, stretchedout there in terror, and then as a centre to the picture the great gauntlioness glaring round with hungry yellow eyes, roaring and whining asshe made up her mind what to do. "It did not take her long, however, just the time that it takes a flashto die into darkness, for, before I could fire again or do anything, with a most fiendish snort she sprang upon poor Jim-Jim. "I heard the unfortunate lad shriek, and then almost instantly I saw hislegs thrown into the air. The lioness had seized him by the neck, andwith a sudden jerk thrown his body over her back so that his legs hungdown upon the further side. [*] Then, without the slightest hesitation, and apparently without any difficulty, she cleared the skerm face ata single bound, and bearing poor Jim-Jim with her vanished into thedarkness beyond, in the direction of the bathing-place that I havealready described. We jumped up perfectly mad with horror and fear, andrushed wildly after her, firing shots at haphazard on the chance thatshe would be frightened by them into dropping her prey, but nothingcould we see, and nothing could we hear. The lioness had vanished intothe darkness, taking Jim-Jim with her, and to attempt to follow her tilldaylight was madness. We should only expose ourselves to the risk of alike fate. [*] I have known a lion carry a two-year-old ox over a stone wall four feet high in this fashion, and a mile away into the bush beyond. He was subsequently poisoned by strychnine put into the carcass of the ox, and I still have his claws. --Editor. "So with scared and heavy hearts we crept back to the skerm, and satdown to wait for the dawn, which now could not be much more than an houroff. It was absolutely useless to try even to disentangle the oxen tillthen, so all that was left for us to do was to sit and wonder how itcame to pass that the one should be taken and the other left, and tohope against hope that our poor servant might have been mercifullydelivered from the lion's jaws. "At length the faint dawn came stealing like a ghost up the long slopeof bush, and glinted on the tangled oxen's horns, and with white andfrightened faces we got up and set to the task of disentangling theoxen, till such time as there should be light enough to enable us tofollow the trail of the lioness which had gone off with Jim-Jim. And here a fresh trouble awaited us, for when at last with infinitedifficulty we had disentangled the great helpless brutes, it was onlyto find that one of the best of them was very sick. There was no mistakeabout the way he stood with his legs slightly apart and his head hangingdown. He had got the redwater, I was sure of it. Of all the difficultiesconnected with life and travelling in South Africa those connected withoxen are perhaps the worst. The ox is the most exasperating animal inthe world, a negro excepted. He has absolutely no constitution, andnever neglects an opportunity of falling sick of some mysteriousdisease. He will get thin upon the slightest provocation, and from meremaliciousness die of 'poverty'; whereas it is his chief delight to turnround and refuse to pull whenever he finds himself well in the centre ofa river, or the waggon-wheel nicely fast in a mud hole. Drive him a fewmiles over rough roads and you will find that he is footsore; turn himloose to feed and you will discover that he has run away, or if he hasnot run away he has of malice aforethought eaten 'tulip' and poisonedhimself. There is always something with him. The ox is a brute. It wasof a piece with his accustomed behaviour for the one in question tobreak out--on purpose probably--with redwater just when a lion hadwalked off with his herd. It was exactly what I should have expected, and I was therefore neither disappointed nor surprised. "Well, it was no use crying as I should almost have liked to do, becauseif this ox had redwater it was probable that the rest of them had ittoo, although they had been sold to me as 'salted, ' that is, proofagainst such diseases as redwater and lungsick. One gets hardened tothis sort of thing in South Africa in course of time, for I suppose inno other country in the world is the waste of animal life so great. "So taking my rifle and telling Harry to follow me (for we had to leavePharaoh to look after the oxen--Pharaoh's lean kine, I called them), I started to see if anything could be found of or appertaining to theunfortunate Jim-Jim. The ground round our little camp was hard androcky, and we could not hit off any spoor of the lioness, though justoutside the skerm was a drop or two of blood. About three hundred yardsfrom the camp, and a little to the right, was a patch of sugar bushmixed up with the usual mimosa, and for this I made, thinking that thelioness would have been sure to take her prey there to devour it. On wepushed through the long grass that was bent down beneath the weight ofthe soaking dew. In two minutes we were wet through up to the thighs, as wet as though we had waded through water. In due course, however, we reached the patch of bush, and by the grey light of the morningcautiously and slowly pushed our way into it. It was very dark under thetrees, for the sun was not yet up, so we walked with the most extremecare, half expecting every minute to come across the lioness licking thebones of poor Jim-Jim. But no lioness could we see, and as for Jim-Jimthere was not even a finger-joint of him to be found. Evidently they hadnot come here. "So pushing through the bush we proceeded to hunt every other likelyspot, but with the same result. "'I suppose she must have taken him right away, ' I said at last, sadlyenough. 'At any rate he will be dead by now, so God have mercy on him, we can't help him. What's to be done now?' "'I suppose that we had better wash ourselves in the pool, and then goback and get something to eat. I am filthy, ' said Harry. "This was a practical if a somewhat unfeeling suggestion. At least itstruck me as unfeeling to talk of washing when poor Jim-Jim had been sorecently eaten. However, I did not let my sentiment carry me away, sowe went down to the beautiful spot that I have described, to wash. I wasthe first to reach it, which I did by scrambling down the ferny bank. Then I turned round, and started back with a yell--as well I might, foralmost from beneath my feet there came a most awful snarl. "I had lit nearly upon the back of the lioness, that had been sleepingon the slab where we always stood to dry ourselves after bathing. With asnarl and a growl, before I could do anything, before I could even cockmy rifle, she had bounded right across the crystal pool, and vanishedover the opposite bank. It was all done in an instant, as quick asthought. "She had been sleeping on the slab, and oh, horror! what was thatsleeping beside her? It was the red remains of poor Jim-Jim, lying on apatch of blood-stained rock. "'Oh! father, father!' shrieked Harry, 'look in the water!' "I looked. There, floating in the centre of the lovely tranquil pool, was Jim-Jim's head. The lioness had bitten it right off, and it hadrolled down the sloping rock into the water. " CHAPTER III. JIM-JIM IS AVENGED "We never bathed in that pool again; indeed for my part I could neverlook at its peaceful purity fringed round with waving ferns withoutthinking of that ghastly head which rolled itself off through the waterwhen we tried to catch it. "Poor Jim-Jim! We buried what was left of him, which was not very much, in an old bread-bag, and though whilst he lived his virtues were notgreat, now that he was gone we could have wept over him. Indeed, Harrydid weep outright; while Pharaoh used very bad language in Zulu, and Iregistered a quiet little vow on my account that I would let daylightinto that lioness before I was forty-eight hours older, if by any meansit could be done. "Well, we buried him, and there he lies in the bread-bag (which Irather grudged him, as it was the only one we had), where lions will nottrouble him any more--though perhaps the hyænas will, if they considerthat there is enough on him left to make it worth their while to dighim up. However, he won't mind that; so there is an end of the book ofJim-Jim. "The question that now remained was, how to circumvent his murderess. Iknew that she would be sure to return as soon as she was hungry again, but I did not know when she would be hungry. She had left so little ofJim-Jim behind her that I should scarcely expect to see her the nextnight, unless indeed she had cubs. Still, I felt that it would notbe wise to miss the chance of her coming, so we set about makingpreparations for her reception. The first thing that we did was tostrengthen the bush wall of the skerm by dragging a large quantity ofthe tops of thorn-trees together, and laying them one on the otherin such a fashion that the thorns pointed outwards. This, after ourexperience of the fate of Jim-Jim, seemed a very necessary precaution, since if where one goat can jump another can follow, as the Kaffirs say, how much more is this the case when an animal so active and so vigorousas the lion is concerned! And now came the further question, how were weto beguile the lioness to return? Lions are animals that have a strangeknack of appearing when they are not wanted, and keeping studiously outof the way when their presence is required. Of course it was possiblethat if she had found Jim-Jim to her liking she would come back to seeif there were any more of his kind about, but still it was not to berelied on. "Harry, who as I have said was an eminently practical boy, suggested toPharaoh that he should go and sit outside the skerm in the moonlight asa sort of bait, assuring him that he would have nothing to fear, aswe should certainly kill the lioness before she killed him. Pharaohhowever, strangely enough, did not seem to take to this suggestion. Indeed, he walked away, much put out with Harry for having made it. "It gave me an idea, however. "'By Jove!' I said, 'there is the sick ox. He must die sooner or later, so we may as well utilize him. ' "Now, about thirty yards to the left of our skerm, as one stood facingdown the hill towards the river, was the stump of a tree that had beendestroyed by lightning many years before, standing equidistant between, but a little in front of, two clumps of bush, which were severally somefifteen paces from it. "Here was the very place to tie the ox; and accordingly a little beforesunset the sick animal was led forth by Pharaoh and made fast there, little knowing, poor brute, for what purpose; and we began our longvigil, this time without a fire, for our object was to attract thelioness and not to scare her. "For hour after hour we waited, keeping ourselves awake by pinching eachother--it is, by the way, remarkable what a difference of opinion asto the force of pinches requisite to the occasion exists in the mind ofpincher and pinched--but no lioness came. At last the moon went down, and darkness swallowed up the world, as the Kaffirs say, but no lionscame to swallow us up. We waited till dawn, because we did not dare togo to sleep, and then at last with many bad thoughts in our hearts wetook such rest as we could get, and that was not much. "That morning we went out shooting, not because we wanted to, for wewere too depressed and tired, but because we had no more meat. For threehours or more we wandered about in a broiling sun looking for somethingto kill, but with absolutely no results. For some unknown reason thegame had grown very scarce about the spot, though when I was there twoyears before every sort of large game except rhinoceros and elephantwas particularly abundant. The lions, of whom there were many, aloneremained, and I fancy that it was the fact of the game they live onhaving temporarily migrated which made them so daring and ferocious. Asa general rule a lion is an amiable animal enough if he is left alone, but a hungry lion is almost as dangerous as a hungry man. One hears agreat many different opinions expressed as to whether or no the lion isremarkable for his courage, but the result of my experience is that verymuch depends upon the state of his stomach. A hungry lion will not stickat a trifle, whereas a full one will flee at a very small rebuke. "Well, we hunted all about, and nothing could we see, not even a duikeror a bush buck; and at last, thoroughly tired and out of temper, westarted on our way back to camp, passing over the brow of a steepishhill to do so. Just as we climbed the crest of the ridge I came to astand, for there, about six hundred yards to my left, his beautifulcurved horns outlined against the soft blue of the sky, I saw a noblekoodoo bull (_Strepsiceros kudu_). Even at that distance, for as youknow my eyes are very keen, I could distinctly see the white stripeson its side when the light fell upon it, and its large and pointed earstwitch as the flies worried it. "So far so good; but how were we to get at it? It was ridiculous to riska shot at that great distance, and yet both the ground and the wind layvery ill for stalking. It seemed to me that the only chance would be tomake a detour of at least a mile or more, and come up on the other sideof the koodoo. I called Harry to my side, and explained to him what Ithought would be our best course, when suddenly, without any delay, thekoodoo saved us further trouble by suddenly starting off down the hilllike a leaping rocket. I do not know what had frightened it, certainlywe had not. Perhaps a hyæna or a leopard--a tiger as we call itthere--had suddenly appeared; at any rate, off it went, runningslightly towards us, and I never saw a buck go faster. I am afraid thatforgetting Harry's presence I used strong language, and really therewas some excuse. As for Harry, he stood watching the beautiful animal'scourse. Presently it vanished behind a patch of bush, to emerge afew seconds later about five hundred paces from us, on a stretch ofcomparatively level ground that was strewn with boulders. On it went, clearing the boulders in its path with a succession of great boundsthat were beautiful to behold. As it did so, I happened to look round atHarry, and perceived to my astonishment that he had got his rifle to hisshoulder. "'You young donkey!' I exclaimed, 'surely you are not going to'--andjust at that moment the rifle went off. "And then I think I saw what was in its way one of the most wonderfulthings I ever remember in my hunting experience. The koodoo was at themoment in the air, clearing a pile of stones with its fore-legs tuckedup underneath it. All of an instant the legs stretched themselves outin a spasmodic fashion, it lit on them, and they doubled up beneath it. Down went the noble buck, down upon his head. For a moment he seemed tobe standing on his horns, his hind-legs high in the air, and then overhe rolled and lay still. "'Great Heavens!' I said, 'why, you've hit him! He's dead. ' "As for Harry, he said nothing, but merely looked scared, as well hemight, for such a marvellous, I may say such an appalling and ghastlyfluke it has never been my lot to witness. A man, let alone a boy, might have fired a thousand such shots without ever touching the object;which, mind you, was springing and bounding over rocks quite fivehundred yards away; and here this lad--taking a snap shot, and merelyallowing for speed and elevation by instinct, for he did not put up hissights--had knocked the bull over as dead as a door-nail. Well, I madeno further remark, as the occasion was too solemn for talking, butmerely led the way to where the koodoo had fallen. There he lay, beautiful and quite still; and there, high up, about half-way down hisneck, was a neat round hole. The bullet had severed the spinal marrow, passing through the vertebræ and away on the other side. "It was already evening when, having cut as much of the best meat as wecould carry from the bull, and tied a red handkerchief and some tufts ofgrass to his spiral horns, which, by the way, must have been nearlyfive feet in length, in the hope of keeping the jackals and aasvögels(vultures) from him, we finally got back to camp, to find Pharaoh, whowas getting rather anxious at our absence, ready to greet us with thepleasing intelligence that another ox was sick. But even this dreadfulbit of intelligence could not dash Harry's spirits; the fact of thematter being, incredible as it may appear, I do verily believe that inhis heart of hearts he set down the death of the koodoo to the creditof his own skill. Now, though the lad was a pretty shot enough, this ofcourse was ridiculous, and I told him so plainly. "By the time that we had finished our supper of koodoo steaks (whichwould have been better if the koodoo had been a little younger), it wastime to get ready for Jim-Jim's murderess. Accordingly we determinedagain to expose the unfortunate sick ox, that was now absolutely onits last legs, being indeed scarcely able to stand. All the afternoonPharaoh told us it had been walking round and round in a circle ascattle in the last stage of redwater generally do. Now it had come to astandstill, and was swaying to and fro with its head hanging down. So wetied him up to the stump of the tree as on the previous night, knowingthat if the lioness did not kill him he would be dead by morning. IndeedI was afraid that he would die at once, in which case he would be of butlittle use as a bait, for the lion is a sportsmanlike animal, and unlesshe is very hungry generally prefers to kill his own dinner, though whenthat is once killed he will come back to it again and again. "Then we again went through our experience of the previous night, sitting there hour after hour, till at last Harry fell fast asleep, and, though I am accustomed to this sort of thing, even I could scarcely keepmy eyes open. Indeed I was just dropping off, when suddenly Pharaoh gaveme a push. "'_Listen!_' he whispered. "I was awake in a second, and listening with all my ears. From the clumpof bush to the right of the lightning-shattered stump to which the sickox was tied came a faint crackling noise. Presently it was repeated. Something was moving there, faintly and quietly enough, but still movingperceptibly, for in the intense stillness of the night any sound seemedloud. "I woke up Harry, who instantly said, 'Where is she? where is she?' andbegan to point his rifle about in a fashion that was more dangerous tous and the oxen than to any possible lioness. "'Be quiet!' I whispered, savagely; and as I did so, with a low andhideous growl a flash of yellow light sped out of the clump of bush, past the ox, and into the corresponding clump upon the other side. Thepoor sick creature gave a sort of groan, staggered round and then beganto tremble. I could see it do so clearly in the moonlight, which wasnow very bright, and I felt a brute for having exposed the unfortunateanimal to such agony as he must undoubtedly be undergoing. The lioness, for it was she, passed so quickly that we could not even distinguish hermovements, much less fire. Indeed at night it is absolutely useless toattempt to shoot unless the object is very close and standing perfectlystill, and then the light is so deceptive and it is so difficult to seethe foresight that the best shot will miss more often than he hits. "'She will be back again presently, ' I said; 'look out, but for Heaven'ssake don't fire unless I tell you to. ' "Hardly were the words out of my mouth when back she came, and againpassed the ox without striking him. "'What on earth is she doing?' whispered Harry. "'Playing with it as a cat does with a mouse, I suppose. She will killit presently. ' "As I spoke, the lioness once more flashed out of the bush, and thistime sprang right over the doomed and trembling ox. It was a beautifulsight to see her clear him in the bright moonlight, as though it were atrick which she had been taught. "'I believe that she has escaped from a circus, ' whispered Harry; 'it'sjolly to see her jump. ' "I said nothing, but I thought to myself that if it was, Master Harrydid not quite appreciate the performance, and small blame to him. At anyrate, his teeth were chattering a little. "Then came a longish pause, and I began to think that the lioness musthave gone away, when suddenly she appeared again, and with one mightybound landed right on to the ox, and struck it a frightful blow with herpaw. "Down it went, and lay on the ground kicking feebly. She put down herwicked-looking head, and, with a fierce growl of contentment, buried herlong white teeth in the throat of the dying animal. When she liftedher muzzle again it was all stained with blood. She stood facing usobliquely, licking her bloody chops and making a sort of purring noise. "'Now's our time, ' I whispered, 'fire when I do. ' "I got on to her as well as I could, but Harry, instead of waiting forme as I told him, fired before I did, and that of course hurried me. But when the smoke cleared, I was delighted to see that the lioness wasrolling about on the ground behind the body of the ox, which covered herin such a fashion, however, that we could not shoot again to make an endof her. "'She's done for! she's dead, the yellow devil!' yelled Pharaohin exultation; and at that very moment the lioness, with a sort ofconvulsive rush, half-rolled, half-sprang, into the patch of thick bushto the right. I fired after her as she went, but so far as I could seewithout result; indeed the probability is that I missed her clean. Atany rate she got to the bush in safety, and once there, began to makesuch a diabolical noise as I never heard before. She would whine andshriek with pain, and then burst out into perfect volleys of roaringthat shook the whole place. "'Well, ' I said, 'we must just let her roar; to go into that bush afterher at night would be madness. ' "At that moment, to my astonishment and alarm, there came an answeringroar from the direction of the river, and then another from behindthe swell of bush. Evidently there were more lions about. The woundedlioness redoubled her efforts, with the object, I suppose, of summoningthe others to her assistance. At any rate they came, and quickly too, for within five minutes, peeping through the bushes of our skerm fence, we saw a magnificent lion bounding along towards us, through the talltambouki grass, that in the moonlight looked for all the world likeripening corn. On he came in great leaps, and a glorious sight it was tosee him. When within fifty yards or so, he stood still in an open spaceand roared. The lioness roared too; then there came a third roar, andanother great black-maned lion stalked majestically up, and joinednumber two, till really I began to realize what the ox must haveundergone. "'Now, Harry, ' I whispered, 'whatever you do don't fire, it's too risky. If they let us be, let them be. ' "Well, the pair marched off to the bush, where the wounded lionesswas now roaring double tides, and the three of them began to snarl andgrumble away together there. Presently, however, the lioness ceasedroaring, and the two lions came out again, the black-maned one first--toprospect, I suppose--walked to where the carcass of the ox lay, andsniffed at it. "'Oh, what a shot!' whispered Harry, who was trembling with excitement. "'Yes, ' I said; 'but don't fire; they might all of them come for us. ' "Harry said nothing, but whether it was from the natural impetuosity ofyouth, or because he was thrown off his balance by excitement, or fromsheer recklessness and devilment, I am sure I cannot tell you, neverhaving been able to get a satisfactory explanation from him; but atany rate the fact remains, he, without word or warning, entirelydisregarding my exhortations, lifted up his Westley Richards and firedat the black-maned lion, and, what is more, hit it slightly on theflank. "Next second there was a most awful roar from the injured lion. Heglared around him and roared with pain, for he was badly stung; andthen, before I could make up my mind what to do, the great black-manedbrute, clearly ignorant of the cause of his hurt, sprang right at thethroat of his companion, to whom he evidently attributed his misfortune. It was a curious sight to see the astonishment of the other lion at thismost unprovoked assault. Over he rolled with an angry snarl, and on tohim sprang the black-maned demon, and began to worry him. This finallyawoke the yellow-maned lion to a sense of the situation, and I am boundto say that he rose to it in a most effective manner. Somehow or otherhe got to his feet, and, roaring and snarling frightfully, closed withhis mighty foe. "Then ensued a most tremendous scene. You know what a shocking thingit is to see two large dogs fighting with abandonment. Well, a wholehundred of dogs could not have looked half so terrible as those twogreat brutes as they rolled and roared and rent in their horrid rage. They gripped each other, they tore at each other's throat, till theirmanes came out in handfuls, and the red blood streamed down their yellowhides. It was an awful and a wonderful thing to see the great catstearing at each other with all the fierce energy of their savagestrength, and making the night hideous with their heart-shaking noise. And the fight was a grand one too. For some minutes it was impossibleto say which was getting the best of it, but at last I saw that theblack-maned lion, though he was slightly bigger, was failing. I aminclined to think that the wound in his flank crippled him. Anyway, he began to get the worst of it, which served him right, as he was theaggressor. Still I could not help feeling sorry for him, for he hadfought a gallant fight, when his antagonist finally got him by thethroat, and, struggle and strike out as he would, began to shake thelife out of him. Over and over they rolled together, a hideous andawe-inspiring spectacle, but the yellow one would not loose his hold, and at length poor black-mane grew faint, his breath came in greatsnorts and seemed to rattle in his nostrils, then he opened his hugemouth, gave the ghost of a roar, quivered, and was dead. "When he was quite sure that the victory was his own, the yellow-manedlion loosed his grip and sniffed at the fallen foe. Then he licked thedead lion's eye, and next, with his fore-feet resting on the carcass, sent up his own chant of victory, that went rolling and pealing downthe dark paths of the night. And at this point I interfered. Taking acareful sight at the centre of his body, in order to give the largestpossible margin for error, I fired, and sent a. 570 express bullet rightthrough him, and down he dropped dead upon the carcass of his mightyfoe. "After that, fairly satisfied with our performances, we slept peaceablytill dawn, leaving Pharaoh to keep watch in case any more lions shouldtake it into their heads to come our way. "When the sun was well up we arose, and went very cautiously--at leastPharaoh and I did, for I would not allow Harry to come--to see if wecould find any trace of the wounded lioness. She had ceased roaringimmediately upon the arrival of the two lions, and had not made a soundsince, from which we concluded that she was probably dead. I was armedwith my express, while Pharaoh, in whose hands a rifle was indeed adangerous weapon, to his companions, had an axe. On our way we stoppedto look at the two dead lions. They were magnificent animals, both ofthem, but their pelts were entirely spoiled by the terrible mauling theyhad given to each other, which was a sad pity. "In another minute we were following the blood spoor of the woundedlioness into the bush, where she had taken refuge. This, I need hardlysay, we did with the utmost caution; indeed, I for one did not atall like the job, and was only consoled by the reflection that itwas necessary, and that the bush was not thick. Well, we stood there, keeping as far from the trees as possible, searching and looking about, but no lioness could we see, though we saw plenty of blood. "'She must have gone somewhere to die, Pharaoh, ' I said in Zulu. "'Yes, Inkoos, ' he answered, 'she has certainly gone away. ' "Hardly were the words out of his mouth, when I heard a roar, andstarting round saw the lioness emerge from the very centre of a bush, inwhich she had been curled up, just behind Pharaoh. Up she went on toher hind-legs, and as she did so I noticed that one of her fore-paws wasbroken near the shoulder, for it hung limply down. Up she went, toweringright over Pharaoh's head, as she did so lifting her uninjured paw tostrike him to the earth. And then, before I could get my rifle round ordo anything to avert the oncoming catastrophe, the Zulu did a very braveand clever thing. Realizing his own imminent danger, he bounded to oneside, and swinging the heavy axe round his head, brought it down righton to the back of the lioness, severing the vertebræ and killing herinstantaneously. It was wonderful to see her collapse all in a heap likean empty sack. "'My word, Pharaoh!' I said, 'that was well done, and none too soon. ' "'Yes, ' he answered, with a little laugh, 'it was a good stroke, Inkoos. Jim-Jim will sleep better now. ' "Then, calling Harry to us, we examined the lioness. She was old, if onemight judge from her worn teeth, and not very large, but thickly made, and must have possessed extraordinary vitality to have lived so long, shot as she was; for, in addition to her broken shoulder, my expressbullet had blown a great hole in her middle that one might have put afist into. "Well, that is the story of the death of poor Jim-Jim and how we avengedit. It is rather interesting in its way, because of the fight betweenthe two lions, of which I never saw the like in all my experience, and Iknow something of lions and their manners. " "And how did you get back to Pilgrim's Rest?" I asked Hunter Quatermainwhen he had finished his yarn. "Ah, we had a nice job with that, " he answered. "The second sick oxdied, and so did another, and we had to get on as best we could withthree harnessed unicorn fashion, while we pushed behind. We did aboutfour miles a day, and it took us nearly a month, during the last week ofwhich we pretty well starved. " "I notice, " I said, "that most of your trips ended in disaster of somesort or another, and yet you went on making them, which strikes one as alittle strange. " "Yes, I dare say: but then, remember I got my living for many years outof hunting. Besides, half the charm of the thing lay in the dangers anddisasters, though they were terrible enough at the time. Another thingis, my trips were not all disastrous. Some time, if you like, I willtell you a story of one which was very much the reverse, for I madeseveral thousand pounds out of it, and saw one of the most extraordinarysights a hunter ever came across. It was on this trip that I met thebravest native woman I ever knew; her name was Maiwa. But it is too latenow, and besides, I am tired of talking about myself. Pass the water, will you!"