Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1893-09-24

let daylight into that lioncSi before was
| hours older, N by any means Il could be do,
I'VE buried him and there he lies where
the Lions will not trouble him any more. So
there is an end OF tho book Of Jim-Jim.
"The question that now remained was how
| TO circumvent his murderess. know thnt
she would be sure TO return as soon as she
I would DO hungry ngain, but did not know
I when she would be hungry. She had left 81
little of Jim-Jim behind her TINT / sbopl5
| scarcely expect TO see her tho next night
unless indeed she had cubs stin, | folt
that 1t would not be wise to miss tbe
chance OF her coming, so we set about max
| ing preparations for her reception. The first
| thing that We did was to strengthen the bnsh
! wall Of the skerm by drus ging a large GUAM
| tity Of the tops Of thorn trees together and
! laying them one on the other in such a fashion
that the thorns pointed upwards. This. after
our experience of the fate of Jim.Jini, seemed
very necessary preeaution, since il where
ono sheep can jump another can follow, as
the Kafrs say, how much more is this the
case where nm animal so active and 20 vigor-
I Gus as the lion is coneernedi And now came
the further question, how were we to berliile
! the lioncss to returni Lions are animals that
/ have strange knack OF appearing when thew
are not wanted, and keeping studously out
of the way when their presence Is required.
Harry, who, as l have said, was an emf
nently practical boy, suggested TO Pharaoh
that he should go and sit outside the skerfn In
the moonlight as sort Of bait, assuring him
that he would have nothing to fear, as we
would certainly kill the lioness before she
killed him. Pharaoh, however, strangely
enough, did not seem to take to this suggestion
Indeed, he walked away, much put but with
Harry for having made it.
at gave me an idea, however.
"'Well,' I said, there is that OK. He must
die sooner or later, so we may as well utilize
him.
Now, about thirty yards to the left of our
skerln, If one stood facing down the hill to-
ward the river, was the stump of tree that
had been destroyed by lightning many years
before, standing equidistantly between, bus
little in front Of, two clumps of bush,
which were sevcrally some fifteen PAGES
from it.
Here was tho very place 10 tie the OK: and
accordingly a little before sunset the poor
animal was led forth by Pharaoh and made
fast there, little knowing, poor brute, for
what purpose; and we commenced our LONG
vigil, this time without a fire, for orr object
was to attract the lioness and not to scare
her.
"For hour after hour we waited, keeping
! OuiHtlNt9 hNhhe ny llllCuIllE Nlcn otnef--lt
is, by the way, remarkable what a difference
in the force of pinches requisite to the occa.
sion exists in the mind OF pincher and
pinchee-but no loness came The moon
waxed and the moon waned, and then at last
the moon went down, and darkness swal-
lowed up the world, but no lion came 10
swallow us up. We waited till dawn, because
we did not dare to 50 TO sleep, and then at
last we took such rest as VIC could get
That morning we went out shooting, NOS
because we wanted to, for we were too de.
pressed and tired but because we had ia
more meat, For three hours or more wa
wandered about in hroiling 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 was there two years befop
every sort OF large game except rhinoccre
and elephant was particularly abundant
The lions, of whom there were many, aloug
remained, and fancy it was the fact of the
game they live on having temporarily mi.
grated that made them so daring and fero-
clous. As general rule a lion is an aminblo
animal enough If he is let alone, but a
hungry lion is almost as dangerous as Il
hungry man. One hears a great many diff
tcrrnt opinions expressed rs to whether or
no the lion is remarkable for his courage,
but the result OF my experience is that verJ
much depends upon the state of his stomach
A hungry lion will not stick at trifl,
whereas a full ono will Zee at Il very SINAI
rebuke.
'Well, we hunted all about and nothip
could we sec, not even duc!, or bush buc'
and at last, thoroughly tired and out OF tenn
per, We started on our way back to camp,
passing over the brow of u steepish hill to do
so. Just as we got over the ridge | fIoze up
like pointer dog, for there, about GOO yards
TO my left his beautiful curved horns out
lined against the soft blue of the sky, saw
noble koodoo bull strepsiceros kudu Even
at that dstGnce-fOr, as You know, my eyes
arc very keen-I could distinctly sec the white
stripes upon its side when the light fell upon
1t and its large and pointed ears twitch rs the
dies worried it,
80 far so good; but how were we to get
at i'll 1t was ridiculous 70 risk a shot at that
great distance, and yet both the ground
and the wind lay very i'll for stalking. IL
seemed 10 me that the only chance would
be to make detour of at least a mile or
more aud come up on the other side of tn,
koodoo called Harry to my side and OK
planned to him what thought would be our
Dese course, when suddenly, without any
delay, the koodoo saved us any further
|
hill like leaping rocket. don't know what
mad frightened 1t; certainly We had not.
Perhaps lyenn or q leopard-a tiger as wo
call it there-had suddenly appeared; at any
rate OF il went, running slightly toward us,
and never saw buck go faster. As for
Harry, he stood watching the beautiful ami
mails coni'Se. Presently It vanished behind
patch Of bush To emerge few seconds later
about 800 PAGES from US, on stretch OF com.
pnrntlvely level ground that was strewn with
powders. On it went, taking the powders
III It's path in IA succession OF great bounds
tl'at We're beautiful 10 behold As il did so
happened TO look round at Harry, and per-
ceiVed to my establishment that lie had got
his rifle to his shoulder.
"'Hou foolish boyr l calculated surely
You are not going to'-and tnst at that mo.
ment the rifle went of
And then think saw what was, In ito
way, one OF the most wonderful things ever
Remember in my hunting experience. The
koodoo was Mt tho moment in the air, clearing
APPLE OF stones with its foro legs tucked up
underneath it. All in an instant the legs
strctched themselves out in u spasmodic
I fashion nd