Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-02-27

Half turning, she knocked me off
the gang plank, between the car and
the donkey cart, then leaped down af-
ter me- pining me to the ground. For
several seconds she stood across me,
licking my face with her tongue, which
was so like a rasp that I could feel 1t
scraping the skin away. I could hear
my boys shouting in their native
tongue, The lion has killed the chief"
and, from the sound Of their voices, I
knew that they were running away
In terror.
Seizing me in her teeth, the lioness
swung me partially across her shoulder
and tried to make off, but the ropes
were secured on one side and stopped
her with a jolt that made her furious.
earth tremble she Topped me against
the ground, again threw herself across
me, and began to chew my side.
had read and heard that a man
did not feel the pain when being chew
ed by a lion-that stupor, paralysis
through fear, or whatever you call it,
deadened the pain-but this was not
true in my case. I could feel every
movement of her jaws and teeth as
she sank them in my side, biting
through the ribs as rat would crush
an eggshell, tearing the flesh away,
snarling and making peculiar smack
| ,x,,r oh "a foo OF nf
I was fully alive to the pain, which
was so frightful as to make me wish
she would finish the job in hurry.
My mind was working all the time and
was, saying in a way: There goes
another rib. She has reached the lung
now. There, that bite has penetrated
the pleural cavity. I wonder how
much longer-oh, how much longer"
1 thought could hear a kettle
drum-pom, poh, pom, pom-another
kettle drum-many kettle drums
their noise grew deafening. The
breast of the lioness was against my
face. l could get the odor Of her
body-a sickening odor. She appear
ed to be getting larger-to my mind
she was growing; she became as large
as ten lions; her body expanded un-
til 1t appeared to cover the whole
land-and all the time the din of the
kettledrums kept up.
l had a pistol at my right hip, but
could not reach it. had every reason
to be fortified against just such a d.
lemma. One of my former partners
had been dragged from my side in
bed and eaten by lion. had also
seen one of my boys slashing lion
across the face with knife while he
was being chewed, and we were unable
to shoot the lion for fear Of killing the
boy. A lion had also taken a boy out
of a wagon where was sleeping one
night, and devoured him almost under
my nose. These things had set me
thinking. had lain awake nights Won
dering what would do in a similar
predicament, and I had resolved on
carrying a spare tueger pistol in my
boot.
Bear in mind things had been hap
pening very quickly around me. I
presume had not been on the ground
more than a minute-perhaps not half
a minute-although it seemed like an
age to me, before I could get my left
hand down to my right boot, extract
the pistol, slide it to point near the
shoulder, and press the muzZle against
the beasts breast. But finally got 1t
there and began to pump. can re-
member hearing the first shot or two,
but I did not hear any more, and
thought the pistol was not working,
although 1 kept on pumping. I was
becoming unconscious, and soon my
senses left me entirely.
Three weeks later awakened in a
hospital at Beira- The boys had fed
to the brush and notified my part
ners, who came on run, to find me
apparently lifeless, and the lioness
stretched across me dead. afterward
saw her skin, and realized from the
rents in it that, despite my failing con-
sciousness, I had emptied the Lueger
into a vital part. I lay at Beira four
months, was then taken by rail to Cape
Town and sent by steamer to South
ampton.-Chicago Record Herald.