, 1888-12-06
TALE OF THREE LIONS
BY Il. RIDER HAGGARD.

b@4N'S SItA GllIltSJ lilNaIlablN 60, bll
one pretext or another. They cannot endure
civilization for very long, its noise and racket
and the "mnipresencc of broadclothed hu
manity proving more trying to their nerves
than the dangers Of the desert. l think that
they feel lonely here, for 1t is fact that is
too little understood. though it has often
been stated, that there j. no loneliness like the
Loneliness of crowds, especially to those who
are unaccustomed to them.
what is there IN til, world" old Quater-
main would ray, so dcsoiate as to stand in
the strcets ots-sreGt cit izsd listen to tbs
footsteps ~1alliiiss, falling, multitudiIous as
the rain; and watch the white line of faces
Us they hurry past, you know not whence,
you know Tot whittier They come and 20,
their eyes meet yours with a cold stare, for
moment their features are written on Your
mind, and then they are gone forever. You
will never see them again, they will never
see you again: they come up out of the un-
known, and presently they once more van
Ish into the unknown, taking their secrets
with them. Yes, that is Loneliness pure and
lndefiled; but to Que who knows and loves
t, the wilderness is not lonely, because the
pirit of nature IS ever there to keep the
wanderer company. He finds companions in
he winds-the sunny streams habble like
eature's children at his feet; high above
aim, III the purple sunset, are dOmeS and
nA2arets and palaces such as TO mortal man
hath built, in and out sf whose flaming doors
he glorious angels of the sun seem to move
continually. And there, too, is the wild
game following its feeding grounds in great
armies, with the springbok thrown out be
sOre for SkirmisherS, then rank upon rank of
Iong faced bleSbuck marching and wheeling
Ike infantry, and las, the shining troops of
Iuagga and the fierce eyed, shaggy wilder
Heeste TO take the place of the Cossack host
that hangs upon an army tlanks.
'Oh, no" he would say, the wilderness is
aot lonely, for, my boy, remember that the
further you get from man the nearer you
grow TO God" and, though this is u saying
that might well be disputed, it is one l am
sure that anybody will easily understand
who has watched the sun rise and set on the
imitleSs deserted plains, and seen the thun
der chariots of the clouds roll in majesty
across the depths of unfathomable sky.
Well, at any rate he went back again, and
now for many months have heard nothing
at all of him, and, to be frank, | greatly
doubt if anybody will ever hear of him again.
| fear that the wilderness that has for SO
many years been n mother TO him will now
also prove his grave and the grave of those
Who accompanied him, for the quest upon
which he and they started is d wild one in
deed.
But while no was in England fort those
years or so between his return from the sue.
eeSsful discovery of the wise kings bsried
treasures and the death of his only son, saw
great deal of old Allan Quatermain I ha6
known him years before in Africa, and after
b. came home, whenever had nothing bet
ter to do, used to run up to Yorkshire ana
stay with him, and in this way Lat one time
and another heard manyySI the incidents OF
his past life, and most curious some of them
were
No one can . sen those years following
the rough existence of an elephant hunter
without meeting with many strange adven-
tures, and one way and another old Quater-
main has certainly seen his share Well,
the story that / am going to tell
you is one of the later of these ad-
ventures, though I forget the exact year
which it happened. At any rate know that
it was the only one of his trips upon which
be took his son Harry (who is since dead
with him, and that Harry was then about a.
And now for the story, which will repeat
as nearly as / can in the words in which
Hunter Quatermain told it to me one night
in the old oak paneled yestibule of his house
in Yorkshire. We were talking about gold
mining.
'FGold miningl" he broke in. "Ah, yes;
once went gold mining at Pilgrims Rest in
the TIansyaal, and it was before that that
We had business about Jim-Jim and the
lions Do you know it! Well it is-or was
one Of the queerest little places you ever saw.
The town itself was pitched in stony valley,
with mountains all about it, and in the mid
die # such scenery as one does not often get
the chance of seeing. Many and many is the
time that have thrown down my pick and
shovel in disgust, clambered out of my claim
and walked couple of miles or so to the top
of some hill Then l would lie down in the
grass and look out over the glorious stretch
Of countryside smiling valleys, the great
mountains touched with goid-real gold of
the sunset, and clothed in sweeping robes OF
bush, and stare into the depths of the perfect
sky above; yes, and thank heaven / had got
away from the cursing and the coarse jokes
Of the miners, and the voices of those Basutu
Kafirs as tAey toiled in the sun, the memory
of which is with ne yet. Well, for some
months dug patiently st my claim till the
very sight of a pick or of q washing trough
became hateful to me. A hundred times q
day lamented my own folly in having in
vested $500, which was about all that was
worth at the time, in this gold mining. But,
like other better people before NE, had been
bitten by the gold Dug, and now had to take
the consequences had bought claim out
of which a man had made fortune-.eJ 600
| or -, coo at least-as l thought, very cheap;
that is, had given him 600 down for it.
II was all that had made by q rough
years elephant hunting beyond the Fam
besi, and I sighed deeply and propheti-
| cally when l saw my successful friend, who
was a Yankee, sweep up the roll of Standard
bank notes with the lordly air Of the man
who made his fortune and cram them into
,l-..Ng- loTA 20
the happy vendor-'it is magnificent prop
erty, and only hope that my luck will be as
good as yours has been BE smiled; to my
excited nerves it seemed that he smiled om-
inously, as he answered me in a peculiar
Yankee drawl: I guess, stranger, as l amt
| the one to make man quarrel with his food,
more especial when there amt no more go
ing of the rounds; and as for that there
claim, well, she's been a good nigger to me;
| but between you and nc, stranger, speaking
| MIN to man, now that there amt any filthy
Iucer between Us to obsculate the feathers of
the truth, guess she's about worked out!'
81 gnsped; the fellows effrontery took my
breath out CT INC. Only five miaItes before
he had been swearing By al his geds-and
| they appeared to be numerous and miSed-
| that there were half . dozen fortunes left in
| the claim, and that lie was only giving it up
AA-
in1 the sold out.
Ok 90 veSed, stranger went on
my e, perhaps there is some shine
in II ct; any W2y you are down
T1Sht y, yOu Ire; therefore you
Will, = real Al, old jam, plate
>Iass Of wor ING on the feelings
- fortune. Any WY it will bring the
muscle NJ on your arm, for the stuff is un-
common stiff, and what is more, you viii in
the course of year earn a sight more than
5000 in value OF experience
"And he went Just i'll time, for in another
minute I should have gone for him, and
saw his face no more.
"Well, / set TO work on the old claim with
my boy Harry and half a dozen KafiTs to
help me, which, seeing that had put nearly
all my worldly wealth into it, was the Least
could do. And We worked, my word we
did work-oGrIy and late we went at it-but
never a bit OF gold did we see; no, not even