The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1886-03-25

down c~onGenGeQly against Jne dlSselD00m,
chewing the ud with a good conscience.
Presently, however, Kaptein began to
get restless. First he snorted, then he got
up n snorted again. Ieould not make it
out, so like a fool I got down of the wagon
box to have a look round, thinking it might
Next instant l regretted it, for all of a
sudden l heard an awful roar and saw
something yellow flash past me and light
on poor Kaptein. Then carhe a below of
put his teeth through the poor brute's neck,
and I began to realize what had happened.
My rifle was in the wagon, and my first
thought was TO get hold of it, and l turned
and made b bolt for it. 1 got my foot on
to the wagon, and there I stopped as if 1
were frozen, IA no wonder, for as / was
About TO spring up 1 heard the lion behind
hae, and next second l felt the brute, aye,
as plainly as 1 can feel this table. / felt
him, say, shifting at my left leg that was
My word / did feel Queer; / don't think
that I ever felt SO queer before. ! dared
net move for the life of me, and the odd
my leg, which had an insane sort of ~inclina-
ton to kick out of its own mere motion
just as hysterical people want to laugh
when they ought TO be particularly solemn.
Well, the lion shifted and shifted, beginning
at my ankle and slowly nosing away up to
my thigh. 1 thought that he was going to
get hold then, but he Lie not. He only
growled softly, and went back to the OK.
Shifting my head a little / got a full view
of him. He VI the biggest lion ever saw,
1 D have seen a great many, and he had
q most tremendous black name. What his
teeth were like you can see-look there,
pretty big ones, amt theya Altogether he
was a magnificent animal, and as ! lay
wagon, it occurred to me that he would
look sncoIanionly well in a cage. He stood
there by the carcass of poor Kaptein, and
deliberately disembowe1led him as neatly
as a butcher could have done. All this
while I dare not move, for he kept lifting
bis head and keeping an eye on me as he
licked his bloody chops. When he had
cleaned Kaptein out he opened his mouth
and roared, and / am notexaggerating when
I say that the sound shook the wagon. In
stantly there came back an answering roar.
".Heavens!' l thought, there is his mate
"Hardly was the thought out of my head
when I caught sight in the moonlight of the
Goness bounding along through the long
the size of mastiffs. She stopped within a
few feet of my head, and stood and waved
her tail, and fixed me with her glowing
yellow eyes; but just as thought that it
was all over she turned, and began to feed
on Kaptein, and so did the Cubs. There
me, growing and quarreling, rending n
tearing and crunching Dor Kaptein's
bones; and there l lay shaking with terror,
and the cold perspiration pouring out of
me; feeling like another Daniel come to
judgment in q new SENSE of the phrase.
Presently the cubs had eaten their fill, and
began to get restless. One went round to
the back of the wagon, and pulled at the
.Impala buck that hung there, and the other
came round my way and began the shifting
game at my leg. Indeed, he did more than
that, fof, my trousers being hitched up a
little, he began to lick the bare skin with
his rough tongue. The more he licked the
more he liked it, to Judge from his increased
Then I knew that the end had come, for in
another second. his flelike tongue would
have rasped through the skin of my leg
which wa luckily pretty tough-and have
no chance for me-. So l just lay there and
Almighty, and thought that after all life
was a very enjoyable thing.
And then all of a sudden I heard a
crashing of bushes and the shouting and
whistling of men, and there were the two
boys coming back with the cattle which
they had found trekking along all together.
The lions lifted their heads and listened,
and then without a sound bounded oR-and
/ tainted.
s'The lions came back no more that night,
and by the next morning my nerves had
got pretty straight again; but / was full of
wrath when 1 thoughtof all that / had gone
through at the hands, or rather noses, of
those four lions, and of the fate of my
after-ox Kapsein. he was a splendid OK,
and 1 was very fond of him., So wroth was
l that like a fool l determined to go for the
whole family of them. 1t was worthy of a
g%reenhorn out on his first hunting trip; but
breakfast, having rubbed some oil upon my
leg, which was very sore from the cubs
tongue, I took the driver, Tom, who did not
half lii the job, and having armed myself
-:kl - l-.I1o NJ
the first breech-1oader 1 over had, 1 started.
1 took the smoothbore because it shot a
bullet very we'll; and my experience has
been that a round bullet from a s~moothbore
is quite as effective against a lion as an
express bullet. The lion is soft and not a
difficult animal to finish if you hit him
anywhere in the body. A buck takes far
more killing.
"Well, 1 started, and the first thing I set
to work to do was to try to make out
whereabouts the brutes lay up for the day.
About three hundred yards from the wagon
was the crest of a rise covered with single
mimosa trees, dotted about in a park-like
fashion, and beyond this was a stretch of
open plain running down to a dry pan, or
water hole, which covered about an acre of
ground, n was densely clothed with
reeds, now in the sere and yellow leaf.
From the further edge of this pan the
ground sloped up again to a great cleft, or
nullah, which had been cut out by the
3thIOu VI WdUcI. anu was pTcUUN UulChlF
s%prinkled with bush, among which grew
some large trees, 1 forget of what sort.
at at once struck me that the dry pan
would be a likely place to find my friends
in, as there is nothing q lion is fonder of
than lying up in reeds. through which he
Accordingly thither 1 went and prospected.
Before l got halfway ound the pan
found the remains of a blue vilderbeeste
that had evidently been killed within the
last three or o days and partially de-
voured by lions; and from other indica-
tions about l was soon assured that If the
family were not in the pan that day, they
spent a good deal of their spare time there.
But if there, the question was how to get
them out; for it was clearly impossible to
think of going in after them unless one
was quite determined to commit suicide.
% there was a strong wind blowing
from the direction Of the wagon, across the
reedy pan toward the bush-clad kloof OF
firing the reeds, which, as 1 hin 1 told
you, were pretty dry. Accordingly Tom
took some matches and began starting lit
tie fires to the left, and / did the same to
the right. But the reeds were still green al
the bottom, and we should never have got
them well alight had it not been for the
wind, which got stronger and stronger as
the sun got higher, and forced the fire into
them. At last, after half an hours trouble
| the flames got a hold, and began to spread
1 "a AAhS @HAeA' ~
the further side of the pan to wait for the
lions, standing we'll out in the open, as we
| stood at the copse to-day where you shot
the woodcock. 1t was a rather risky thing
to do, but l used to be so sure of my shoot
ing in those days that did not so much
mind the risk. Scarcely had l got rounc
when heard the reeds parting before thu
onward rush of some animal. Now fol
it, said 1. On it came. could see that i
was yellow, and prepared for action, wheI
instead of a lion out. bounded a beautiful
reit box, which had been lying in the shelte
of the pan. 1t must, by the way, hav
been a reit box of a peculiarly. cenfidint
nature, to lay itself down with the liol
like the lamb Of prophecy, but I snppos
that the reeds were thick, and that it KEEP
o long way off.
well, 1let the reit box go, aud 1t went
like the wind, and kept my eyes fxed upo,
! the reeds The ars wes bnrHiAG like q IN,