Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1888-02-11
CHAPTER III.

Poor JimJim! 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 not great, now that he was gone
VIC could have wept over him. Indeed, Harry
dld weep outright; while l registered O quiet
llttle vow on my own account that | would
let daylight into thatslioness before | was d.
hours older, II by any means it could BIO done.
buried him ind there he lies where
the lions will not trouble him any more. So
there is an end Of the book of Jim-Jim.
1.-The question that now remained was how
to circumvent his murdcrcss. knew that
she would be sure to return az soon as she
would DO hungry again, but I did not know
when she would DO hungry. She had left so
little of Jim-Jim behind her that l should
scarcely expect to see her tho next night,
unless indeed she had cubs. Still, l felt
that 1t would not be wise to miss the
chance of her coming, 80 we set about max
Ing preparations for her reception. The Grst
thing that we did was 70 strengthen tho bush
wall of the skerm by dragging a large guam
tity OF tho tops Of thorn trees together and
laying them one on tho other in such a fashion
that the thorns pointed upwards. This, after
our experience Of the fate Of Jim-Jin, seemed
O very necessary precauton, since If where
JoAAP oAOGuei CAU lOl1OV, tS
the kafirs say, how much more Is this tho
case where IN animal 50 active and so vicor-
Gus as the lion is concerned! And now came
the further question, how were we to begui]e
the lloness to return! Lions are animals that
have a strange knack of appearing when they
are not wanted, aud keeping studiously out
OF tho way when their presence is required.
Harry, who, as I have said, was an emi-
nently practical boy, suggested to Pharaoh
that he should 60 and sit outside the skerm In
the moonlight as . sort Of bait, assuring him
that he would have nothing to fear, as we
would certainly kill the lioness before sh,
killed him. Pharaoh, however, strangely
enough, did not seem to take to this suggestion.
Indeed, he walked away, much put out with
Harry for having made it.
ut ga"o me an idea, however.
"+Nell,' I said, there is that OK. 10 mnst
die sooner or later, so We may "a well utilize
him
Nov, about thirty yards to tho loft of our
skerm, II one stood facing down the hill to.
ward the river, was the stump OF q tree that
had been destroyed BY lightning many years
before. standing equidistantly between, but
q little in trout Of, two clumps of bush,
which ware .evera1ly some fifteen PAGES
from It.
Here was The very place to tie the OK; and
accordingly q little before sunset the poor
animal was led forth by Pharaoh and made
fast there, little knowing, poor brute, for
b purpose; and we commenced our long
vigil, this time without a fire, for our object
was to attract the lioness end not to scare
her.
'For hour after hour we waited. keeping
ourselves awake BY pinching each other-it
Is nv the wnv rnnnoYyah1o what n I;no~o->o
in the force Of pinches requisite to the occa-
sion exists in the mind of pincher and
pinchee-but no lioness came. The moon
waIed and the moon waned, and then at last
the moon went down, and darkness swal-
lowed up the world, but no lion came to
swallow US up. We waited till dawn, because
We did not dare to 80 to sleep, and then at
last we took such rest as we could get.
THAT morning wc went out shooting, not
because We wanted to, for we were too de-
pressed and tired but because we had no
more meat. For three hours or more we
wandered about In q broiling sun looking
for something to kill, but absolutely with no
results. For some unknown reason the
game had grown very scarce about the spot,
though when I was there two years before
every sort of largo game except rhinoceros
and elephant was particularly abundant.
Ihelions, OF whom there were many, alone
remained, andI fancy it was the fact Of the
game they live on having temporarily mi
grated that made them 50 daring and fero-
rciouA As a general rule a lion is an amiable
animal enough if he is let alone, but a
hungry hon is almost as dangerous as a
hungry man. One hears q great many DIFF
ferent spinions expressed as to whether or
no the hon is remarkable for his courage,
but the result Of my experience is that very
much depends upon the state Of his stomach.
A hungry lion will not stick at u trife,
whereas a full one viii fec at a very small
rebuke.
swell, we hunted al about and nothing
sssaa we Sc, ast evsal . duck q . busA busk,