The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-07-01

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he had cleaned Kaptein out he opened his
mouth and roared, and | am not exagger-
ating when say that the sound shook the
wagon. Instantly there came an answer
ing roar,
"'Heaven = 1 thought, there is his
mate 7
Hardly was the thought out of my
head when | caught sight in the moon
light of the lioness bounding along through
the long grass, and after her a couple of
cubs about 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 all was over she turned and began to
feed on Kaptein, and so did the cubs.
There were the four of them within eight
feet of me growing and quarreling, rend-
ing and tearing and crunching poor Kap-
tein's bones, and there l lay shaking with
terror and the cold perspiration pouring
out of me, feeling like another Danielcome
to judgment in new sense cf the phrase
'Presently the cubs had eaten their fill
and began to get restless. One went around
to the back Of the wagon and pulled at the
Impala buck that hung there and the other
came around my way and began the sniff
ing game at my leg. Indeed he did more
than that, for, my trousers being hitched
up 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 vigor and the loud purring
noise he made. Then [ knew that the
end had come, for in another second his
file-like tongue would have rasped through
the skin of my leg-which was luckily
pretty tough-and have got to the blood,
and then there would be no chance for
me. So just lay there and thought of
my sins and prayed 10 the Almighty, and
thought that, after all, life was very en-
joyble thing.
"And then all of sudden | heard
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 sound bounded off
and tainted.
CHAPTER III.
''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 l thought Of all that l
had gone through at the hands, or rather
noses, of those four lions, and of the fate
of my afterox, Kaptein. He was splen-
did OK, and was very fond of him. So
wroth was that, like fool, determined
to go for the whole family Of them. 1t
was worthy of greenhorn out on his first
hunting trip, but did it nevertheless.
esAccnrdingly, after 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 like the
job, and having armed myself with an or
binary double number twelve smoothbore,
the first breechoader l ever had, started.
l took the smoothbore because it shot a
bullet very well, and my experience has
been that roand ball from smoQthhore
is quite as effective against lion as an
express bullet The lion is soft and not q
difficult animal to finish II you hit him
anywhere in the body. A buck takes far
more killing.
"Well, l started, and the first thing |
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 rise, covered with
single mimosa trees, dotted about in
parklike fashion, and beyond this was
stretch of open plain, running down to a
dry pan, or water hole, which covered about
an acre of ground and was densely clothed
with reeds, now in the sere and yellow leaf.
From the farther edge of this pan the
ground sioped up again to a great cleft or
nullah, which had been cut out by the aO-
tion of water and was pretty thickly sprin-
kled with bush, among which grew some
large trees, forget of what sort,
s1t at once struck me that the dry pan
would be likely place to find my friends
in, as there is nothing lion is fonder of
than lying up in reeds, through which he
can see things without being seen himself
Accordingly thither went and prospected.
Before l had got half way round the pan
found the remains of blue vilderbeeste
that had evidently been killed within the
last three or four days and partially deVOur
ed by lions, and from other indications
about was soon assured thatif the family
were not in the pan that day they spent
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 ia after them unless one was quite
determined to commit suicide.
"Now there was q strong wind blowing
from the direction of the wagon across the
reedy pan toward the bush clad kloof or
donga, and this first gave me the idea of
firing the reeds, which, as | think told
you, were pretty dry Accordingly Tom
took some matches and began starting little
fires to the left, and did the same to the
n Il l. sl...u --.....