Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1888-05-05

into the air. The lioness had seized him by
the neck, and with q sudden jerk thrown his
body over her back so that his legs hung
down at the further side.
"Then, without the slightest hesitation,
and apparently without any difficulty, she
cleared the skerm fence at single bound,
and, bearing poor Jim-Iim with her, vanished
into the darkness beyond in the direction of
the bathing place that I have already de-
scribed- We jumped up, perfectly mad with
horror and fear, and rushed after her, firing
shots at haphazard, on the chance that she
would be frightened by them into dropping
her prey, but nothing could we see and moth
ing could we hear. The lioness had vanished
into the darkness, taking Jim-Jim with her,
and to attempt to follow her till daylight was
madness. We should only expose ourselves
to the risk of like fate.
$50 with scared and heavy hearts we crept
back to the skerm and sat down to wait for
daylight, which now could not be much more
than an hour Off It was absolutely useless
to try even to disentangle the oxen till then,
80 all that was left for us to do was TO sit and
wonder how it came to pass that one should
be taken and the other left, and to hope
against hope that our poor servant might
have been mercifully delivered from the lions
jaws. At length the faint light came steal
ing like ghost up the long slope of bush
and glinted on the tangled oxen's horns
and with frightened faces we got up and
set to the task Of disentangling the oxen till
such time as there should be light enough to
enable US to follow the trail of the lioness
which had gone off with Jim-Jim. And here
fresh trouble awaited us, for when at last,
with infinite difficulty, we had got the great
hal nj Go ~ ~,
one of them was very sick. There was no
mistake about the way he stood with his legs
slightly apart and his head hanging down
He had got the redwater; 1 was sure of it.
OF all the difficulties connected with life and
travelling in South Africa those connected
with oxen are perhaps the worst The OK is
the most exasperating animal in the world, e
negro excepted. He has absolutely no con-
stitution, and never neglects an opportunity
of falling sick of some mysterious disease
He viii get thin upon the slightest provoca-
ton, and from mere maliciousness die Of
poverty whereas it is his chief delight to
turn round and refuse to pull whenever he
Ands himself well in the center of a river, or
the wagon wheel nicely fast in a mud hole.
Drive him few miles over rough roads and
you will find that he is footsore; turn him
loose to feed and you will discover that he
has run away, or if he has not run away he
has Of malice aforethought eaten tulip and
poisoned himself There is always some
thing wrong with him. The OK is q brute.
1t was Of q piece with his accustomed be-
havior for the one in question to break out
ON purpose, probably-with redwater Just
when lion had walked off with his herier.
It was exactly what 1 should have expected,
and was therefore neither disappointed nor
surprised.
"Well, it was no use crying, as should
almost have liked to do, because if this OK
bad redwater it was probable that the rest
Of them had it too, although they had been
sold to me as 'salted,' that is, proof against
such diseases as redwater and lung sick.
One gets hardened to this sort of thing in
South Africa in course of time, for l sup
pose IN no other country in the world is the
waste of animal life so great.
"Se, taking my rifle and telling Harry to
follow me tfor we had to leave Pharaoh to
look after the oxen-Pharaohs lean kline
called them, started to see if anything
could be found of or appertaining to the an
fortunate Jim-Jim. The ground round our
little camp was hard and rocky, and we
could not hit off any spoor of the lioness,
though just outside the skerm we saw drop
or two of blood. About 800 yards from the
camp, and little to the right, was patch of
sugar bush mixed with the usual mimosa, and
for this / made, thinking that the lioness
would have been sure to take her prey there
to devour it. On we pushed through the
long grass, that was bent down beneath the
weight Of the soaking dew. In two minutes
we were wet through up to our thighs, as
wet as though we had waded through water.
t. I,xA hnvx hAA khn
patch of bush, and in the gray light of the
morning cautiously and slowly pushed our
way into it. It was very dark under the
trees, for the sun was not yet up, SO we walk
cd with the most extreme care, half expect
ing every minute to come across the ioness
licking the bones of poor Jim-Gm. But no
lioness could vs. see, and as for Jim-Jim,
there was not even q finger joint Of him to
be found. Evidently they had not come
here ...-..-
$50 pushing through the bush we proceeded
to hunt every other likely spot about, with
the same result.
al suppose she must have taken him right
away said at last, sadly enough. 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 nowP
suppose tnat We na0 DeCter WASH our
selves in the pool and then go back and get
something to eat am filthy said Harry.
"This was o practical, if a somewhat un-
feeling, suggestion At least it struck me as
unfeeling to talk of washing when poor Jim
Jim had been SO recently eaten. However,
did not let my sentiment carry mo away, so
we went down to the beautiful spot that
have described, to wash. was the first to
reach it, which did by scrambling down the
ferny bank. Then I turned round and started
back with yell, as well l III ght, for from
almost beneath my feet there came most
awful snarl.
II had lit down almost upon the back Of
the lioness, who had been sleeping oU the slab
where we stood % dry ourselves alter bath
( ing. With a saarl aud gr,wi, before l could
do anything, before / coa,l even cock my
rifle, she had bounded rig AT across the crystal
pool and vanished over the opposite bank
It was all done in an instant, as quick as
thought.
"She had been sleeYiny on the slab, and
nh ylNo4 q