, 1888-12-06

helds. The UohcT man, or rather lad, Jim-JiIu
was MIiu,h Kafir, or KnobnOsc, and even
IN the light OF subsequent events | fear that
cannot speak very well of him. He was an
Idte and careless young rascal, and only that
very morning had to tell Pharaoh to give
him beating fog letting the oxen stray.
which hc did w-ith the grcnte.t gJlsto, al
though nc was. by the way, very fond of
JEn-JInI. Indeed, | saw him consoling jim
jim afterwards with pinch of snuff from
his own ear box whilst he explained to him
that the next time it came i'll the way of duty
to iioS him Ec meant to thrash him with the
other hand, 50 Is to cross the old cuts and
make a pretty pattern on his back
'Well, OIL they went, though Jim7Jim did
not at az like leaving the camp at that hour,
even when the moonlight was so bright, and
in duo course returned safely enough with a
great bundle of wood. | laughed at Jim-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 Il
bush and heard something snore.
As, however, on further investigation, tho
yellow eyes and the snore appeared to have
existed only in Jinl-Jim's lively imagination.
was not greatly disturbed by this alarming
report, but, having seen to the making up of
the fire, got into the skerm and went quietly
to sleep with Harry by my side.
Some hours afterwards l woke up with .
start | don't know what woke me- The
moon had gone down, or at least was almost
hidden behind the soft horizon of bush. ONLY
her :ed rim being visible Also a wind had
sprDng up and was driving long l,urrying
lines of cloud across the starry sky, and alto
gethcr n great change had come over tho
mood of the night BY the look Of the sky
judged we must be about two hours frora
daybrcak.
"The oxen, which were as usual tied to the
disselboom of the Scotch cart, were restless
they kept snufiing and blowing and rising
up and lying down again, so 1 at once sus-
gpected that they must wind something
Presently l knew what it was that they
winded, for within fifty yards of US lion
roared, not very loud, but quite loud enough
to make my heart come into my mouth
Pharaoh was sleeping on the other side Of
the cart, and beneath it 1 saw him raise his
head and listen.
"Lion, Inkoos,' he whispered, lion'
"Jim-Jim also jumped up, and by the faint
light could see that he was in a very great
fright indeed.
Thinking that it was as well to be pre-
pared for emergencies, l told Pharaoh to
throw wood upon the fire, and woke up
Harry, who l verify believe was capable of
sleeping happily through the crack of doom.
He was little scared at first, but presently
Lhe excitement of the position came home TO
him, and he became quite anxious to see his
majesty face to face. l got my rifle handy
and gave Harry his-a Westly Richards fall
ing block, which is very useful gun for q
youth, being light and yet good killing
rifle-and then we waited
''For n long time nothing happened, and
began to think that tho best thing that we
could do would be TO goto sleep again, when
suddenly heard n sound more like a cough
than d roar within about twenty yards of the
sl,ern We all looked out, but could see
nothing; and then followed another period
Of suspense. It was very trying to the
nerves, this waiting for az attack that might
be developed from any quarter, or might not
be developed ut all; and though was an old
hand at this sort of business, l was anxious
about Harry, for it is wonderful how the
presence of anybody 20 :.hom one is attached
unnerves man in mgmcnts of danger, and
that made me nervous. | know, although it
was now chilly enough, l could feel the per-
spiration running down my nose, and in order
to relieve the strain on my attention, en-
ployed myself in watching beetle which ap-
I'eareu 10 he arurlcjC,t Dy the nrcii-nt, ana
was sitting before il thoIghtfuily rubbing h.s
antennn against each other.
Suddenly the beetle gave stIch :, jump
that he nearly pitched EcadlolS int he fire,
and 80 did we al!-aavc jumps, l mean, and
no wonder, for from right under the skerIn
fence there came most frightful roar-a
roar that literally made the Scotch cart
shake and shake Gyd TOOK the breath out
of me.
''Harry made an exclamation, Jim-Jim
howled outright, while the poor oxen, who
were terrified almost cut of their hides, shiv-
cred and lowed piteoIlsly.
''The night was almost entirely dark now,
for the moon Ind quite set and the clouds
had covered up the stars, so that the only
light that we had came from the fire, which
iJg :iIis time was burning up brightly again.
I1u, Us YOU know, freight is absolutely use
If:., to shoot by, it is so uncertain and besides
i. renetrates but very kttle way into the
darkness, although if ono Is i'll the dark out
asIe one can see it from So far away.
Presently the oxen, after standing still
for moment, suddenly winded the lion and
did what / feared they would-beSan to
'skrek,' that is, to try aud break loose from
the trektow to which they were tied, and
rush OF madly into the wilderness. Lions
know of this habit on the part of oxen, which
are, do believe, the most foolish animals un-
der the sun, sheep being a very Solomon
compared to them, and it is by no means I'M
common for n lion to get in such q position
that herd or span of oxen mny wind him,
shrek. break their reins and rush off into the
bush OF course, once they are there they
are helpless in the dark; and then the lion
chooses the one that he loves best and eats
him at his leisure.
ssWeIl. round and round went our six poor
oxen, nearly trampling us to death III their
mad rIIsA; indeed, had we not hastily tum-
bled out of the way we should have been
trampled to death, or at the least seriously
injured As it was, Harry was run over,
and poor Jim-Jim being caught by the trek
tow somewhere beneath the arm, was hurled
right across the skerm, landing by my side
only some PAGES off.
s.Snap went the disselboom of the cart be
meath the transverse strain put upon 1t. Had
it not broken the cart would have oyerset; as
it was, i'll another minute, oxen, cart, trek
tow, reims, broken disselboom, and every
thing were soon tied in one vast heaving,
plunging, believing and seemingly lnextrlcii-
bic knot.
For q moment or two this state of affairs
took my attention off from the lion that had
caused II, Dut Wllle WIS NoHuei his5 "ioN
on earth was to be done next, and what we
should do if the cattle broke loose into the
bush and wcrc lost, for cattle frightened IN
this manner will go right away like mad
things, it was suddenly recalled IN very
painful fashion.
''For at that moment l perceived by the
light of the fire kind Of gleam of yellow
travelling through the air toward us.
"'The Ioni the Ionr holloaed Pharaoh,
and as he did so he or she, for it was q great,
gaunt idness, half wild, no doubt, with
hunger, lit right in the middle Of the 1kerm,
and stood there in tho smoky gloom and
dashed her tail and roarcd. l seized my rifle
and fired it at her, but what between the con
fusion and my agitation and the uncertain
light, missed her and early shot Pharaoh
The flash of the rifle, however, threw the
whole scene into strong :elisf, and Wild one
it was, can tell you-with the seethinS mass
of oxen twisted all around the cart in such a
fashion that their heads looked as though
they were growing out s their rumps and
their horns seemed to protrude from Their
backs; the smoking fire, with just a blaze il
the heart of the smoke; Jiin-Jim i'll tho fore
r-,-o,7,,,I whore tha Ovp1 had thrown him in