A Tale of Three Lions

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 A Tale of Three Lions

Contents
THE INTEREST ON TEN SHILLINGS................................................................................................................3
WHAT WAS FOUND IN THE POOL................................................................................................................9
JIM-JIM IS AVENGED..................................................................................................................................17

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 A Tale of Three Lions

Chapter - 1
THE INTEREST ON TEN SHILLINGS
Most of you will have heard that Allan Quatermain, who was once one of the celebration that
determined King Solomon's mines some little time ago, and who after wards got here to stay in England
close to his pal Sir Henry Curtis. He went returned to the desert again, as these historical hunters nearly
always do, on one pretext or another. They can't suffer civilization for very long, its noise and racket and
the omnipresence of broad-clothed humanity proving extra attempting to their nerves than the risks of
the desert. I suppose that they experience lonely here, for it is a truth that is too little understood, even
though it has frequently been stated, that there is no loneliness like the loneliness of crowds, specifically
to these who are unaccustomed to them. "What is there in the world," historic Quatermain would say,
"so desolate as to stand in the streets of an amazing town and hear to the footsteps falling, falling,
multitudinous as the rain, and watch the white line of faces as they hurry past, you recognize no longer
whence, you recognize now not whither? They come and go, their eyes meet yours with a cold stare, for
a second their facets are written on your mind, and then they are long past forever. You will by no
means see them again; they will by no means see you again; they come up out of the unknown and in
modern times they as soon as extra vanish into the unknown, taking their secrets and techniques with
them. Yes, that is loneliness pure and undefiled; however to one who is aware of and loves it, the desert
is no longer lonely, due to the fact the spirit of nature is ever there to preserve the wanderer company.
He finds companions in the winds—the sunny streams babble like Nature's kids at his feet; excessive
above them, in the red sunset, are domes and minarets and palaces, such as no mortal man has built, in
and out of whose flaming doorways the angels of the solar appear to cross continually. And there, too, is
the wild game, following its feeding-grounds in extraordinary armies, with the springbuck thrown out
earlier than for skirmishers; then rank upon rank of long-faced blackbuck, marching and wheeling like
infantry; and final the shining troops of quake, and the fierce-eyed shaggy wilder beeste to take, as it
were, the vicinity of the cossack host that hangs upon an army's flanks.

"Oh, no," he would say, "the wasteland is now not lonely, for, my boy, be aware that the in addition you
get from man, the nearer you develop to God," and although this is a announcing that may nicely be
disputed, it is one I am positive that anyone will without problems recognize who has watched the solar
upward jostle and set on the limitless abandoned plains, and considered the thunder chariots of the
clouds roll in majesty throughout the depths of unfathomable sky.

Well, at any charge we went lower back again, and now for many months I have heard nothing at all of
him, and to be frank, I notably doubt if every person will ever hear of him again. I worry that the
wilderness, that has for so many years been a mom to him, will now additionally show his grave and the
grave of these who accompanied him, for the quest upon which he and they have commenced is a wild
one indeed.

But whilst he used to be in England for these three years or so between his return from the profitable
discovery of the clever king's buried treasures, and the demise of his solely son, I noticed a first-rate deal
of ancient Allan Quatermain. I had recognized him years earlier than in Africa, and after he got here

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home, each time I had nothing higher to do, I used to run up to Yorkshire and remain with him, and in
this way I at one time and every other heard many of the incidents of his previous life, and most curious
some of them were. No man can ignore all these years following the hard existence of an elephant-
hunter except assembly with many odd adventures, and in one way and some other ancient Quatermain
has really considered his share. Well, the story that I am going to inform you in the following pages is
one of the later of these adventures, although I neglect the actual yr in which it happened. At any fee I
recognize that it was once the solely time out upon which he took his son Harry (who is due to the fact
that dead) with him, and that Harry used to be then about fourteen. And now for the story, which I will
repeat, as almost as I can, in the phrases in which Hunter Quatermain advised it to me one night time in
the historical oak-paneled vestibule of his residence in Yorkshire. We had been speak me about gold-
mining—

"Gold-mining!" he broke in; "ah! Yes, I as soon as went gold-mining at Pilgrims' Rest in the Transvaal,
and it used to be after that that we had the enterprise about Jim-Jim and the lions. Do you comprehend
Pilgrim's Rest? Well, it is, or was, one of the queerest little locations you ever saw. The city itself used to
be pitched in a stony valley, with mountains all about it, and in the center of such surroundings as one
does now not regularly get the danger of seeing. Many and many is the time that I have thrown down
my choose and shovel in disgust, clambered out of my claim, and walked a couple of miles or so to the
pinnacle of some hill. Then I would lie down in the grass and appear out over the superb stretch of
country—the smiling valleys, the awesome mountains touched with gold— actual gold of the sunset,
and clothed in sweeping robes of bush, and stare into the depths of the best sky above; yes, and thank
Heaven I had bought away from the cursing and the coarse jokes of the miners, and the voices of these
Basutu Kaffirs as they toiled in the sun, the reminiscence of which is with me yet.

"Well, for some months I dug away patiently at my claim, until the very sight of a choice or of a washing-
trough grew to become hateful to me. A hundred instances a day I lamented my very own folly in having
invested eight hundred pounds, which used to be about all that I was once really worth at the time, in
this gold-mining. But like different higher human beings earlier than me, I had been bitten by using the
gold bug, and now was once compelled to take the consequences. I sold a declare out of which a man
had made a fortune—five or six thousand kilos at least—as I thought, very cheap; that is, I gave him 5
hundred kilos down for it. It was once all that I had made by using a very tough year's elephant-hunting
past the Zambesi, and I sighed deeply and prophetically when I noticed my profitable friend, who used
to be a Yankee, sweep up the roll of Standard Bank notes with the lordly air of the man who has made
his fortune, and cram them into his breeches pockets. 'Well,' I stated to him—the glad vendor—'it is a
incredible property, and I solely hope that my success will be as exact as yours has been.'

"He smiled; to my excited nerves it appeared that he smiled ominously, as he answered me in a

extraordinary Yankee drawl: 'I guess, stranger, as I am not the one to make a man quarrel with his food,
extra especial when there is no extra going of the rounds; and as for that there claim, well, she's been a
correct nigger to me; however between you and me, stranger, talking man to man, now that there isn’t
any filthy lucre between us to difficult to understand the points of the truth, I wager she's about labored
out!'

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"I gasped; the fellow's effrontery took the breath out of me. Only 5 minutes earlier than he had been
swearing with the aid of all his gods—and they seemed to be several and mixed—that there have been
half a dozen fortunes left in the claim, and that he was once solely giving it up due to the fact he was
once downright weary of shoveling the gold out.

'Don't appear so vexed, stranger,' went on my tormentor, 'perhaps there is some shine in the historic
woman yet; anyway you are a downright proper fellow, you are, consequently you will, I guess, have a
actual A1 possibility of working on the emotions of Fortune. Anyway it will deliver the muscle up upon
your arm, for the stuff is unusual stiff, and, what is more, you will in the path of a yr earn a sight greater
than two thousand greenbacks in price of experience.'

"Then he went simply in time, for in some other second I need to have long gone for him, and I noticed
his face no more.

"Well, I set to work on the historic declare with my boy Harry and half of a dozen Kaffirs to assist me,
which, seeing that I had put almost all my worldly wealth into it, was once the least that I may want to
do. And we worked, my word, we did work—early and late we went at it—but by no means a bit of gold
did we see; no, now not even a nugget massive sufficient to make a scarf- pin out of. The American
gentleman had secured it all and left us the sweepings.

"For three months this went on, until at ultimate I had paid away all, or very close to all, that was once
left of her little capital in wages and meals for the Kaffirs and ourselves. When I inform you that Boer
meal used to be occasionally as excessive as 4 kilos a bag, you will recognize that it did now not take
lengthy to run via our banking account.

"At final the disaster came. One Saturday night time I had paid the guys as usual, and sold a mud of
mealier meal at sixty shillings for them to fill themselves with, and then I went with my boy Harry and
sat on the side of the splendid gap that we had dug in the hill-side, and which we had in bitter mockery
named Eldorado. There we sat in the moonlight with our toes over the facet of the claim, and have been
depression sufficient for anything. Presently I pulled out my purse and emptied its contents into my
hand. There was once a half-sovereign, two florins, nine pence in silver, no coppers—for copper virtually
does no longer flow into in South Africa, which is one of the matters that make residing so expensive
there—in all precisely fourteen and nine pence.

'There, Harry, my boy!' I said, 'that is the sum whole of our worldly wealth; that gap has swallowed all
the rest.'

'By George!' stated Master Harry; 'I say, father, you and I shall have to let ourselves out to work with the
Kaffirs and stay on mealy pap,' and he sniggered at his disagreeable little joke.

"But I was once in no temper for joking, for it is no longer a merry element to dig like something for
months and be definitely ruined in the process, in particular if you occur to dislike digging, and hence I
resented Harry's light-heartedness.

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"'Be quiet, boy!' I said, elevating my hand as even though to supply him a cuff, with the end result that
the half-sovereign slipped out of it and fell into the gulf below.

'Oh, bother,' I stated, 'it's gone.'

'There, Dad,' stated Harry, 'that's what comes of letting your indignant passions rise; now we are down
to four and nine.'

"I made no reply to these phrases of wisdom, however scrambled down the steep aspects of the claim,
accompanied by means of Harry, to hunt for my little all. Well, we hunted and we hunted, however the
moonlight is an unsure element to seem for half-sovereigns by, and there was once some unfastened
soil about, for the Kaffirs had knocked off working at this very spot a couple of hours before. I took a
choice and raked away the clods of earth with it, in the hope of discovering the coin; however all in vain.
At ultimate in sheer annoyance I struck the sharp quit of the pickaxe down into the soil, which used to
be of a very tough nature. To my astonishment it sunk in proper up to the haft.

"'Why, Harry,' I said, 'this floor should have been disturbed!'

"'I do not suppose so, father,' he answered; 'but we will quickly see,' and he commenced to shovel out
the soil with his hands. ‘Oh,' he stated presently, 'it's solely some historic stones; the choice has long
past down between them, look!' and he commenced to pull at one of the stones.

"'I say, Dad,' he stated presently, nearly in a whisper, 'it's treasured heavy, experience it;' and he rose
and gave me a round, brownish lump about the measurement of a very massive apple, which he used to
be maintaining in each his hands. I took it curiously and held it up to the light. It used to be very heavy.
The moonlight fell upon its tough and filth-encrusted surface, and as I looked, curious little thrills of
exhilaration started out to skip via me. But I should now not be sure.

'Give me your knife, Harry,' I said.

"He did so, and resting the brown stone on my knee I scratched at its surface. Great heavens, it used to
be soft!

"Another 2d and the secret was once out, we had located a brilliant nugget of pure gold, 4 kilos of it or
more. 'It's gold, lad,' I said, 'it's gold, or I'm a Dutchman!'

"Harry, with his eyes beginning out of his head, glared down at the sparkling yellow scratch that I had
made upon the virgin metal, and then burst out into yell upon yell of exultation, which went ringing
away throughout the silent claims like shrieks of anyone being murdered.

"'Be quiet!' I said; 'do you choose each thief on the fields after you?'

"Scarcely had been the phrases out of my mouth when I heard a stealthy footstep approaching. I
without delay put the huge nugget down and sat on it, and uncommonly challenging it was. As I did so I
noticed a lean darkish face poked over the aspect of the declaration and a pair of beady eyes looking out
us out. I knew the face, it belonged to a man of very awful persona regarded as Handspike Tom, who

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had, I understood, been so named at the Diamond Fields due to the fact he had murdered his mate with
a handspike. He was once now no doubt prowling about like a human hyena to see what he ought to
steal.

'Is that you, 'Mr. Quatermain?' he said.

'Yes, it is me, Mr. Tom,' I answered, politely.

'And what would possibly all that there yelling be?' he asked. I used to be taking walks along, a-taking of
the nighttime air and a-thinking on the stars, when I 'ears 'owl after 'owl.'

'Well, Mr. Tom,' I answered, 'that is now not to be questioned at, seeing that like you they are nocturnal
birds.'

''Owl after 'owl!' he repeated sternly, taking no observe of my interpretation, 'and I stop and says,
"That's murder," and I listens once more and thinks, "No, it isn’t; that 'owl is the 'owl of exultation; some
one's been and bought his fingers into a gummy yeller pot, I'll swear, and long gone off 'is 'head in the
sucking of them." Now, 'Mr. Quatermain, is I right? Is it nuggets? Oh, lord!' and he smacked his lips
audibly—'great massive yellow boys—is it them that you have simply been and tumbled across?'

"'No,' I stated boldly, 'it isn't'—the merciless gleam in his black eyes altogether overcoming my aversion
to untruth, for I knew that if as soon as he determined out what it used to be that I used to be sitting on
—and with the aid of the way I have heard of rolling in gold being spoken of as a excellent process,
however I surely do no longer advocate anyone who values alleviation to strive sitting on it—I have to
run a very properly threat of being 'handspike' earlier than the night time was once over.

"'If you prefer to comprehend what it was, Mr. Tom,' I went on, with my politest air, even though in
suffering from the nugget underneath—for I preserve it is usually first-class to be well mannered to a
man who is so equipped with a handspike—'my boy and I have had a mild distinction of opinion, and I
used to be imposing my view of the count upon him; that is all.'

"Yes, Mr. Tom,' installed Harry, beginning to weep, for Harry become a clever boy, and noticed the
difficulty we have been in, 'that turned into it—I haloed due to the fact father beat me.'

“Properly, now, did you, my pricey boy—did you? Well, all I'm able to say is that a played-out vintage
declare is a superb queer form of location to return to form to argufy at ten o'clock of night, and what's
greater, my sweet youth, if ever I need to 'have the argufying of you'—and he leered unpleasantly at
Harry—'your may not 'roller in quite this kind of jolly kind 'o way. And now I will be saying suitable-night,
for I do not like demanding of an own family celebration. No, I am not that sort of guy, I am not. Good-
night to you, 'Mr. Quatermain—good-night time to you, my argufied younger one;' and Mr. Tom became
away disappointed, and prowled off elsewhere, like a human jackal, to see what he could steal or kill.

'Thank God!' I said, as I slipped off the lump of gold. 'Now, then, do you get up, Harry, and see if that
consummate villain has long gone.' Harry did so, and mentioned that he had vanished in the direction of
Pilgrim's relaxation, after which we set to work, and very cautiously, but trembling with excitement, with

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our fingers hollowed out all the space of ground into which I had struck the select. Sure, as I hoped,
there was a everyday nest of nuggets, twelve in all, walking from the scale of a hazel-nut to that of a
hen's egg, even though of direction the first one became lots large than that. How they all got here there
no one can say; it turned into one of those outstanding freaks, with stories of which, at any charge, each
person familiar with alluvial gold-mining might be familiar. It turned out afterwards that the American
who bought me the declare had within the same way made his pile—a much large one than ours, by
way of the way— out of a unmarried pocket, and then worked for 6 months without seeing shade, after
which he gave it up.

"At any cost, there the nuggets were, to the value, because it turned out afterwards, of about twelve
hundred and fifty pounds, so that in the end I took out of that hollow 4 hundred and fifty pounds more
than I placed into it. We were given them all out and wrapped them up in a handkerchief, and then,
fearing to hold domestic a lot treasure, especially as we knew that Mr. Handspike Tom was on the
prowl, decided to bypass the night time wherein we had been—a need which, disagreeable because it
become, changed into wonderfully sweetened via the presence of that handkerchief complete of virgin
gold—the hobby of my lost 1/2- sovereign.

"Slowly the night time wore away, for with the worry of Handspike Tom earlier than my eyes I did not
dare to fall asleep, and at final the dawn came. I was given up and watched its growth, until it opened
like a flower upon the eastern sky, and the sunbeams began to spring up in splendor from mountain-top
to mountain-pinnacle. I watched it, and as I did so it flashed upon me, with a entire conviction which I
had no longer felt earlier than, that I had had enough of gold-mining to remaining me the relaxation of
my natural existence, and that i then and there made up my mind to clear out of Pilgrims' rest and cross
and shoot buffalo closer to Delagoa Bay. Then I grew to become, took the choose and shovel, and
although it became a Sunday morning, wakened Harry and got to work to look if there had been any
greater nuggets about. As I predicted, there were none. What we had got had lain together in a little
pocket full of soil that felt pretty different from the stiff stuff spherical and outside the pocket. There
was now not some other hints of gold. Of path it's far viable that there have been greater pocketfuls
somewhere about, however all i have to mention is I made up my mind that, whoever located them, I
should no longer; and, as a matter of truth, I’ve seeing that heard that this declare has been the wreck of
3 human beings, as it very almost turned into the smash of me.

'Harry,' I stated currently, 'I’m going away this week closer to Delagoa to shoot buffalo. Shall I take you
with me, or send you down to Durban?'

'Oh, take me with you, father!' begged Harry, 'I need to kill a buffalo!'

"And supposing that the buffalo kills you as a substitute?' I requested.

“Oh, never mind,' he said, gaily, 'there are masses more where I got here from.'

"I rebuked him for his flippancy, but ultimately I consented to take him.

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Chapter - 2
WHAT WAS FOUND IN THE POOL
"Something over a fortnight had handed on the grounds that the night time when I misplaced
half-a-sovereign and discovered twelve hundred and fifty kilos in searching for it, and as an
alternative of that horrid hole, for which, after all, Eldorado was once hardly ever a misnomer, a
very distinct scene stretched away earlier than us clad in the silver gown of the moonlight. We
had been camped— Harry and I, two Kaffirs, a Scotch cart, and six oxen—on the swelling aspect
of a high-quality wave of bush clad land. Just the place we had made our camp, however, the
bush was once very sparse, and solely grew about in clumps, whilst right here and there had
been single flat-topped mimosa-trees. To our proper a little stream, which had reduce a deep
channel for itself in the bosom of the slope, flowed musically on between banks inexperienced
with maidenhair, wild asparagus, and many lovely grasses. The bed-rock right here was once
purple granite, and in the path of centuries of affected person washing the water had hollowed
out some of the massive slabs in its route into gorgeous troughs and cups, and these we used
for bathing-places. No Roman lady, with her baths of porphyry or alabaster, should have had a
extra scrumptious spot to bathe herself than we observed inside fifty yards of our skerm, or
hard enclosure of mimosa thorn, that we had dragged collectively spherical the cart to guard us
from the assaults of lions. That there had been numerous of these brutes about, I knew from
their spoor, even though we had neither heard nor considered them.

"Our tub was once a little nook the place the eddy of the movement had washed away a mass
of soil, and on the face of it there grew a most lovely historical mimosa thorn. Beneath the
thorn was once a giant easy slab of granite fringed all spherical with maidenhair and other
ferns, that sloped gently down to a pool of the clearest glowing water, which lay in a bowl of
granite about ten toes broad via 5 ft deep in the centre. Here to this slab we went each morning
to bathe, and that pleasant tub is amongst the most satisfactory of my searching reminiscences,
as it is also, for motives which will in modern times appear, amongst the most painful.

"It used to be a beautiful night. Harry and I sat to the windward of the fire, the place the two
Kaffirs have been busily employed in cooking some impala steaks off a buck which Harry, to his
notable joy, had shot that morning, and had been as flawlessly contented with ourselves and
the world at massive as two humans should maybe be. The night time was once beautiful, and
it would require someone with greater phrases on the tip of his tongue than I have to describe
desirable the chastened majesty of these moonlit wilds. Away forever and forever, away to the
mysterious north, rolled the first-rate bush ocean over which the silence brooded. There below
us a mile or extra to the proper ran the large Oliphant, and mirror-like flashed again the moon,
whose silver spears have been shivered on its breast, and then tossed in twisted strains of mild

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a ways and large about the mountains and the plain. Down upon the river-banks grew
extremely good timber-trees that thru the stillness pointed solemnly to Heaven, and the
splendor of the night time lay upon them like a cloud. Everywhere used to be silence—silence
in the starred depths, silence on the bosom of the slumbering earth. Now, if ever, tremendous
ideas would possibly upward push in a man's mind and for a house he may overlook his
littleness in the feel that he partook of the pure immensity about him.

'Hark! What was once that?'

"From a ways away down by way of the river there come a mighty rolling sound, then another,
and another. It is the lion in search of his meat.

"I noticed Harry shiver and flip a little pale. He was once a plucky boy enough, however the roar
of a lion heard for the first time in the solemn bush veldt at night is apt to shake the nerves of
any lad.

'Lions, my boy,' I said; 'they are looking down by way of the river there; however I do not
assume that you want make yourself uneasy. We have been right here three nights now, and if
they have been going to pay us a go to I assume that they would have carried out so earlier
than this. However, we will make up the fire.'

'Here, Pharaoh, do you and Jim-Jim get some greater wooden earlier than we go to sleep, else
the cats will be purring spherical you earlier than morning.'

"Pharaoh, a excellent brawny Swazi, who had been working for me at Pilgrims' Rest, laughed,
rose, and stretched himself, then calling to Jim-Jim to convey the axe and a rim, commenced off
in the moonlight closer to a clump of sugar-bush the place we reduce our gas from some
useless trees. He used to be a best fellow in his way, used to be Pharaoh, and I assume that he
had been named Pharaoh due to the fact he had an Egyptian forged of countenance and a royal
kind of swagger about him. But his way used to be a incredibly odd way, on account of the
uncertainty of his temper, and very few humans should get on with him; additionally if he
should discover liquor he would drink like a fish, and when he drank he grew to become
shockingly bloodthirsty. These have been his terrible points; his excellent ones had been that,
like most human beings of the Zulu blood, he grew to be quite connected if he took to you at
all; he was once a hard-working and sensible man, and about as dare-devil and plucky a fellow
at a pinch as I have ever had to do with. He was once about five-and-thirty years of age or so,
however no longer a 'keshla' or ringed man. I consider that he had obtained into bother in
some way in Swaziland, and the authorities of his tribe would now not permit him to count on
the ring, and that is why he got here to work at the gold-fields. The different man, or as a
substitute lad, Jim- Jim, was once a Mapoch Kaffir, or Knobnose, and even in the mild of
subsequent activities I worry I can't talk very nicely of him. He used to be an idle and careless

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younger rascal, and solely that very morning I had to inform Pharaoh to supply him a beating
for letting the oxen stray, which Pharaoh did with the best gusto, though he was once through
way of being very fond of Jim-Jim. Indeed, I noticed him consoling Jim-Jim afterwards with a
pinch of snuff from his personal ear-box, at the same time as he defined to him that the
subsequent time it got here in the way of responsibility to flog him, he intended to thrash him
with the different hand, so as to pass the historic cuts and make a "pretty pattern" on his back.

"Well, off they went, although Jim-Jim did no longer at all like leaving the camp at that hour,
even when the moonlight used to be so bright, and in due direction again safely adequate with
a top notch bundle of wood. I laughed at Jim-Jim, and requested him if he had considered
anything, and he stated yes, he had; he had considered two giant yellow eyes staring at him
from at the back of a bush, and heard something snore.

"As, however, on in addition investigation the yellow eyes and the snore regarded to have
existed solely in Jim-Jim's active imagination, I was once now not significantly disturbed by
means of this alarming report; however having considered to the making-up of the fire,
obtained into the skerm and went quietly to sleep with Harry through my side

"A few hours afterwards I awakened with a start. I don't know what woke me. The moon had
long past down, or at the least turned into nearly hidden in the back of the gentle horizon of
bush, most effective her pink rim being visible. Additionally a wind had sprung up and turned
into using long hurrying traces of cloud across the starry sky, and altogether a excellent change
had come over the temper of the night time. With the aid of the appearance of the sky I judged
that we have to be about two hours from day-wreck.

"The oxen, which were as ordinary tied to the diesel boom of the Scotch cart, were very restless
—they kept snuffling and blowing, and growing up and mendacity down again, so I immediately
suspected that they must find something. Currently I knew what it become that they winded,
for within fifty yards people a lion roared, no longer very loud, however pretty loud sufficient to
make my coronary heart come into my mouth.

"Pharaoh changed into napping on the other aspect of the cart, and, searching beneath it, I
noticed him raise his head and concentrate.

'Lion’, he whispered, 'lion!'

"Jim-Jim additionally jumped up, and through the faint light I could see that he turned into in a
very fantastic fright indeed.

"Wondering that it become as well to be prepared for emergencies, I informed Pharaoh to

throw timber upon the fireplace, and woke up Harry, who I verily consider changed into

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capable of drowsing thankfully via the crack of doom. He became a touch scared at the
beginning, but currently the exhilaration of the placement got here home to him, and he grew
pretty disturbing to pour his majesty face to face. I got my rifle on hand and gave Harry his—a
Wesley Richards falling block, that is a completely useful gun for a youngsters, being light and
but a good killing rifle, and then we waited.

"For a long term nothing took place, and that I commenced to assume that the best factor we
should do would be to fall asleep once more, when all of sudden I heard a legitimate extra like a
cough than a roar inside about twenty yards of the skerm. All of us appeared out, but ought to
see not anything; after which followed any other duration of suspense. It become very seeking
to the nerves, this expecting an assault that might be developed from any zone or won't be
evolved in any respect; and although i used to be an antique hand at this kind of enterprise I
used to be hectic approximately Harry, for it is first rate how the presence of each person to
whom one is connected unnerves a person in moments of risk. I recognize, although it become
now cold enough, I should sense the perspiration going for walks down my nostril, and so that
you can relieve the pressure on my interest employed myself in watching a beetle which
seemed to be attracted through the firelight, and turned into sitting earlier than it thoughtfully
rubbing his antenna towards each different.

"Abruptly, the beetle gave one of these bounce that he almost pitched headlong into the
hearth, and so did all of us—gave jumps, I imply, and no surprise, for from proper below the
skerm fence there got here a maximum frightful roar —a roar that actually made the Scotch
cart shake and took the breath out of me.

"Harry made an exclamation, Jim-Jim howled outright, at the same time as the terrible oxen
that had been terrified nearly out in their hides, shivered and lowed piteously”.

"The night changed into nearly absolutely darkish now, for the moon had pretty set, and the
clouds had protected up the stars, so that the best mild we had got here from the fire, which by
way of this time turned into burning up brightly again. But, as you already know, firelight is
genuinely useless to shoot by using, it's so unsure, and besides, it penetrates but a totally little
manner into the darkness, despite the fact that if one is within the dark outdoor, it is easy to
see it from a ways away.

"Presently the oxen, after status nonetheless for a second, winded the lion and did what I
feared they could do—started out to 'skrek,' that is, to attempt to ruin unfastened from the
trek tow to which they had been tied, to hurry off madly into the desolate tract. Lions realize of
this addiction at the a part of oxen, that are, I do accept as true with, the maximum silly animals
below the solar, a sheep being a totally Solomon compared to them; and it is in no way unusual
for a lion to get in one of these function that a herd or span of oxen may additionally wind him,

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 A Tale of Three Lions

skrek, wreck their rims, and rush off into the bush. Of path, once there, they're helpless in the
dark; and then the lion chooses the one that he loves nice and eats him at his leisure.

"Nicely, round and spherical went our six terrible oxen, nearly trampling us to dying of their
mad rush; certainly, had we now not swiftly tumbled out of the way, we need to have been
trodden to demise, or at the least significantly injured. As it turned into, Harry changed into run
over, and bad Jim-Jim being caught with the aid of the trek tow someplace beneath the arm,
turned into hurled right across the skerm, touchdown by means of my facet just a few paces
off.

"Snap went the diesel boom of the cart beneath the transverse strain positioned upon it. Had it
now not broken the cart might have overset; because it was, in any other minute, oxen, cart,
trek tow, rims, broken diesel boom, and the whole lot have been soon tied in one widespread
heaving, plunging, bellowing, and seemingly inextricable knot.

"For a moment or two this state of affairs took my interest off from the lion that had triggered
it, but while I used to be wondering what on the earth became to be carried out subsequent,
and the way we have to manipulate if the farm animals broke loose into the bush and have
been misplaced—for cattle anxious on this manner will so without delay like mad things—my
thoughts have been suddenly recalled to the lion in a completely painful style.

"For at that moment I perceived through the light of the fireplace a sort of gleam of yellow
visiting thru the air closer to us.

'The lion The lion!' hallooed Pharaoh, and as he did so, he, or as a substitute she, for it changed
into a top notch gaunt lioness, 1/2 wild no question with starvation, lit right in the center of the
skerm, and stood there in the smoky gloom lashing her tail and roaring. I seized my rifle and
fired it at her; however what among the confusion, my agitation, and the unsure light, I ignored
her, and almost shot Pharaoh. The flash of the rifle, however, threw the complete scene into
sturdy alleviation, and a wild sight it was I’m able to tell you—with the seething mass of oxen
twisted all round the cart, in this kind of style that their heads looked as although they had
been developing out of their rumps; and their horns seemed to protrude from their backs; the
smoking hearth with just a blaze in the coronary heart of the smoke; Jim-Jim inside the
foreground, in which the oxen had thrown him of their wild rush, stretched out there in terror,
and then as a centre to the photo the awesome gaunt lioness obvious round with hungry yellow
eyes, roaring and whining as she made up her mind what to do.

"It did not take her lengthy, however, just the time that it takes a flash to die into darkness, for,
before I should hearth again or do whatever, with a maximum fiendish giggle she sprang upon
terrible Jim-Jim.

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 A Tale of Three Lions

"I heard the unlucky lad shriek, after which almost immediately I saw his legs thrown into the
air. The lioness had seized him via the neck, and with a unexpected jerk thrown his body over
her back in order that his legs hung down upon the in addition aspect. Then, without the
slightest hesitation, and apparently with none trouble, she cleared the skerm face at a
unmarried certain, and bearing negative Jim-Jim together with her vanished into the darkness
past, inside the direction of the showering- location that I have already described. We jumped
up flawlessly mad with horror and worry, and rushed wildly after her, firing pictures at
haphazard on the hazard that she might be worried with the aid of them into losing her prey,
however not anything should we see, and not anything ought to we listen. The lioness had
vanished into the darkness, taking Jim-Jim together with her, and to try to observe her till
daytime turned into insanity. We should most effective divulge ourselves to the chance of a like
destiny.

"So with scared and heavy hearts we crept returned to the skerm, and sat down to look ahead
to the sunrise, which now couldn't be a great deal extra than an hour off. It became truly
useless to try even to disentangle the oxen until then, so all that become left for us to do
changed into to sit and marvel the way it came to skip that the one need to be taken and the
opposite left, and to wish against desire that our negative servant could have been mercifully
brought from the lion's jaws.

"At length the faint sunrise came stealing like a ghost up the long slope of bush, and glinted on
the tangled oxen's horns, and with white and apprehensive faces we got up and set to the
challenge of disentangling the oxen, till such time as there must be light sufficient to permit us
to comply with the trail of the lioness which had long past off with Jim-Jim. And right here a
fresh trouble awaited us, for when at remaining with endless trouble we had disentangled the
exquisite helpless brutes, it become most effective to find that one of the fine of them become
very ill. There was no mistake about the manner he stood with his legs slightly apart and his
head hanging down. He had been given the red water I used to be sure of it. Of all of the
problems related with lifestyles and travelling in South Africa the ones connected with oxen are
possibly the worst. The ox is the most exasperating animal within the world, a Negro excepted.
He has truly no charter, and in no way neglects a possibility of falling unwell of some mysterious
sickness. He's going to get skinny upon the slightest provocation, and from mere maliciousness
die of 'poverty'; while it's miles his leader delight to show round and refuse to tug on every
occasion he unearths himself properly in the centre of a river, or the wagon-wheel nicely fast in
a dust hollow. Drive him some miles over rough roads and you may discover that he's footsore;
turn him loose to feed and you may find out that he has run away, or if he has not run away he
has of malice aforethought eaten 'tulip' and poisoned himself. There may be continually
something with him. The ox is a brute. It became of a piece along with his accustomed behavior
for the one in query to break out—on motive in all likelihood—with red water simply whilst a

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 A Tale of Three Lions

lion had walked off together with his herd. It changed into precisely what I should have
expected, and i used to be therefore neither disillusioned nor surprised.

"Well, it became no need crying as I should nearly have liked to do, due to the fact if this ox had
red water it turned into probably that the relaxation of them had it too, although they had been
sold to me as 'salted,' that is, evidence towards such sicknesses as red water and lung sick. One
receives hardened to this sort of issue in South Africa in course of time, for I think in no other
than U.S. In the global is the waste of animal existence so fantastic.

"So taking my rifle and telling Harry to observe me (for we needed to depart Pharaoh to look
after the oxen—Pharaoh's lean kine, I called them), I started out to peer if something could be
located of or appertaining to the unfortunate Jim-Jim. The floor round our little camp became
tough and rocky, and we couldn't hit off any spoor of the lioness, though just outside the skerm
changed into a drop or two of blood. About 3 hundred yards from the camp, and a bit to the
proper, was a patch of sugar bush mixed up with the same old mimosa, and for this I made,
questioning that the lioness could had been positive to take her prey there to devour it. On we
had driven via the lengthy grass that turned into bent down below the load of the soaking dew.
In two minutes we had been wet through up to the thighs, as moist as though we had waded
thru water. In due course, however, we reached the patch of bush and with the aid of the gray
light of the morning carefully and slowly pushed our way into it. It changed into very darkish
underneath the bushes, for the sun became no longer yet up, so we walked with the most
severe care, half of looking ahead to every minute to stumble upon the lioness licking the bones
of poor Jim-Jim. However no lioness should we see, and as for Jim-Jim there has been now not
even a finger-joint of him to be found. Naturally they had now not come here.

"So pushing via the bush we proceeded to seek each other probable spot, however with the
equal end result.

'I suppose she have to have taken him proper away,' I stated at ultimate, regrettably enough.
'At any price he may be lifeless by means of now, so God have mercy on him, we can't assist
him. What is to be accomplished now?'

'I think that we had higher wash ourselves within the pool, and then cross back and get
something to eat. I'm filthy,' stated Harry.

"It becomes a practical if a particularly unfeeling concept. At least it struck me as unfeeling to

speak of washing whilst bad Jim-Jim had been so lately eaten. But, I did no longer let my
sentiment carry me away, so we went right down to the beautiful spot that i have described, to
clean. I was the first to reach it, which I did by means of scrambling down the ferny bank. Then I
became round, and started lower back with a yell—as well i might, for nearly from below my
toes there got here a maximum lousy snarl.

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 A Tale of Three Lions

"I had lit almost upon the lower back of the lioness, that were sound asleep at the slab in which
we usually stood to dry ourselves after bathing. With a snarl and a growl, before I may want to
do something, before I may want to even cock my rifle, she had bounded proper across the
crystal pool, and vanished over the alternative financial institution. It became all accomplished
in an on the spot, as short as concept.

"She has been sleeping at the slab, and oh, horror! What turned into that sound asleep beside
her? It was the pink remains of poor Jim-Jim, mendacity on a patch of blood-stained rock.

'Oh! Father, father!' shrieked Harry, 'look within the water!'

I regarded. There, floating inside the centre of the lovable tranquil pool, changed into Jim-Jim's
head. The lioness had bitten it right off, and it had rolled down the sloping rock into the water.

Chapter - 3
JIM-JIM IS AVENGED

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 A Tale of Three Lions

"We by no means bathed in that pool again; indeed for my part I may want to never examine its
peaceful purity fringed round with waving ferns without taking into consideration that ghastly
head which rolled itself off through the water when we attempted to seize it.

Terrible Jim-Jim! We buried what become left of him, which was no longer very lots, in an old
bread-bag, and though even as he lived his virtues had been not fantastic, now that he turned
into gone we ought to have swept over him. Indeed, Harry did weep outright; whilst Pharaoh
used very terrible language in Zulu, and that I registered a quiet little vow on my account that I
would allow daylight hours into that lioness before I used to be 40-8 hours older, if via any way
it is able to be performed.

"Nicely, we buried him, and there he lies within the bread-bag (which I rather grudged him, as it
became the simplest one we had), in which lions will now not hassle him any extra—though
perhaps the hyenas will, in the event that they recall that there may be sufficient on him left to
make it really worth their even as to dig him up. However, he may not thoughts that; so there's
a stop of the book of Jim-Jim.

"The query that now remained was, a way to steer clear of his murderess. I knew that she
would make sure to go back as quickly as she turned into hungry once more, however I did not
know when she could be hungry. She had left so little of Jim-Jim behind her that I should
scarcely count on to peer her the subsequent night, unless certainly she had cubs.
Nevertheless, I felt that it would now not be clever to overlook the hazard of her coming, so we
set about making arrangements for her reception. The first element that we did changed into to
strengthen the bush wall of the skerm by means of dragging a big amount of the tops of thorn-
trees together, and laying them one on the opposite in this type of style that the thorns pointed
outwards. This, after our experience of the destiny of Jim-Jim, regarded a completely necessary
precaution, due to the fact that if wherein one goat can soar every other can observe, because
the Kaffirs say, how lots extra is this the case while an animal so lively and so full of life because
the lion is concerned! And now got here the further query, how have been we to beguile the
lioness to return? Lions are animals which have a bizarre knack of performing while they may
be now not desired, and retaining studiously out of the manner when their presence is
required. Of course it become viable that if she had found Jim-Jim to her liking she might come
back to peer if there were any extra of his type approximately, however nevertheless it turned
into no longer to be trusted.

"Harry, who as I’ve said become an eminently realistic boy, counseled to Pharaoh that he ought
to cross and take a seat out of doors the skerm within the moonlight as a sort of bait, assuring
him that he might have nothing to worry, as we ought to honestly kill the lioness before she
killed him. Pharaoh but, unusually enough, did now not appear to take to this concept.
Certainly, he walked away, a great deal put out with Harry for having made it.

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 A Tale of Three Lions

"It gave me a concept, but”.

'By means of love' I stated, 'there's the sick ox. He must die subsequently, so we can also as
nicely make use of him.'

"Now, about thirty yards to the left of our skerm, as one stood going through down the hill
closer to the river, turned into the stump of a tree that had been destroyed by lightning a few
years earlier than, status equidistant between, however a bit in front of, two clumps of bush,
which were severally a few fifteen paces from it.

"right here changed into the very place to tie the ox; and consequently a touch earlier than
sunset the ill animal become led forth by means of Pharaoh and made fast there, little
understanding, poor brute, for what motive; and we started out our lengthy vigil, this time
without a hearth, for our item turned into to attract the lioness and no longer to scare her.

"For hour after hour we waited, keeping ourselves wide awake by way of pinching every
different—it's miles, through the manner, exquisite what a difference of opinion as to the
pressure of pinches requisite to the event exists in the mind of pincher and pinched—but no
lioness got here. At closing the moon went down, and darkness swallowed up the arena,
because the Kaffirs say, but no lions got here to swallow us up. We waited until sunrise, due to
the fact we did no longer dare to nod off, and then at last with many horrific thoughts in our
hearts we took such relaxation as we could get, and that became now not a great deal.

"That morning we went out capturing, not because we desired to, for we had been too
depressed and tired, however because we had no greater meat. For 3 hours or more we
wandered about in a broiling sun searching out something to kill, but with genuinely no results.
For a few unknown causes the sport had grown very scarce about the spot, although when I
was three years earlier than every type of huge recreation except rhinoceros and elephant
changed into in particular plentiful. The lions, of which there have been many, alone, remained,
and that i fancy that it turned into the reality of the sport they live on having briefly migrated
which made them so bold and ferocious. As a popular rule a lion is an amiable animal sufficient
if he's left by me, but a hungry lion is sort of as dangerous as a hungry guy. One hears an
incredible many extraordinary evaluations expressed as to whether or not the lion is awesome
for his braveness, but the result of my revel in is that very lots depends upon the country of his
stomach. A hungry lion will not stick at a trifle, whereas a complete one will flee at a very small
rebuke.

"Well, we hunted all about, and nothing could we see, now not even a duiker or a bush dollar;
and at final, very well tired and out of temper, we started on our manner returned to camp,
passing over the brow of a sheepish hill to do so. Simply as we climbed the crest of the ridge I
got here to a stand, for there, approximately six hundred yards to my left, his lovely curved

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 A Tale of Three Lions

horns outlined against the gentle blue of the sky, I noticed a noble koodoo bull (Strepsiceros
kudu). Even at that distance, for as you recognize my eyes are very eager, I could pretty see the
white stripes on its aspect while the mild fell upon it, and its massive and pointed ears twitch as
the flies concerned it.

"So far so right; but how had been we to get at it? It become ridiculous to danger a shot at that
exceptional distance, and but each the ground and the wind lay very sick for stalking. It
regarded to me that the only danger would be to make a detour of at the least a mile or more,
and come up on the other aspect of the koodoo. I known as Harry to my face, and explained to
him what I idea would be our satisfactory direction, whilst abruptly, with no delay: the koodoo
stored us in addition trouble through abruptly taking off down the hill like a leaping rocket. I do
no longer recognize what had frightened it, honestly we had not. Perhaps a hyenas or a leopard
—a tiger as we name it there—had regarded; at any fee, off it went, going for walks barely
closer to us, and i never saw a dollar go faster. I am afraid that forgetting Harry's presence I
used strong language, and clearly there has been some excuse. As for Harry, he stood looking
the lovely animal's course. Currently it vanished behind a patch of bush, to emerge some
seconds later about 5 hundred paces from us, on a stretch of comparatively stage floor that
become strewn with boulders. On it went, clearing the boulders in its direction with a
succession of top notch bounds that had been beautiful to behold. Because it did so, I
happened to appearance round at Harry, and seemed to my astonishment that he had got his
rifle to his shoulder.

'You young donkey' I exclaimed, 'really you are not going to'—and just at that moment the rifle
went off.

"And then I think I saw what changed into in its way one of the maximum exquisite things I ever
bear in mind in my searching enjoys. The koodoo changed into in the interim inside the air,
clearing a pile of stones with its fore-legs tucked up underneath it. All of an on the spot the legs
stretched themselves out in a spasmodic style, it lit on them, and that they doubled up under it.
Down went the noble dollar, down upon his head. For a moment he seemed to be status on his
horns, his hind-legs excessive within the air, after which over he rolled and lay still.

'Great Heavens' I stated, 'why, you've got hit him! He's lifeless.'

"As for Harry, he said not anything, but simply seemed scared, as nicely he would possibly, for
any such marvelous, I can also say such an appalling and ghastly fluke it has in no way been my
lot to witness. A person, let alone a boy, might have fired a thousand such pictures without ever
touching the object; which, mind you, turned into springing and bounding over rocks pretty 5
hundred yards away; and right here this lad—taking a snap shot, and merely making an
allowance for speed and elevation via instinct, for he did no longer put up his points of interest

19
 A Tale of Three Lions

—had knocked the bull over as lifeless as a door-nail. Nicely, I made no further remark, as the
occasion changed into too solemn for talking, but simply led the way to in which the koodoo
had fallen. There he lay, stunning and pretty still; and there, excessive up, about half of-manner
down his neck, become a neat round hole. The bullet had severed the spinal marrow, passing
through the vertebræ and away on the alternative aspect.

"It become already night whilst, having reduce as tons of the pleasant meat as we should
convey from the bull, and tied a crimson handkerchief and a few tufts of grass to his spiral
horns, which, through the way, need to had been nearly five feet in period, inside the hope of
maintaining the jackals and aasvögels (vultures) from him, we subsequently got returned to
camp, to discover Pharaoh, who changed into getting alternatively worrying at our absence,
equipped to greet us with the eye-catching intelligence that every other ox was ill. But even this
dreadful little bit of intelligence couldn't sprint Harry's spirits; the reality of the matter being,
exceptional as it could seem, I do verily trust that during his coronary heart of hearts he set
down the demise of the koodoo to the credit of his own skill. Now, though the lad become a
quite shot enough, this of course become ridiculous, and I told him so evidently.

"By the time that we had completed our supper of koodoo steaks (which would were higher if
the koodoo had been a little more youthful), it changed into time to get equipped for Jim-Jim's
murderess. As a result we determined once more to show the unlucky sick ox, which turned
into now truly on its closing legs, being certainly scarcely able to stand. All of the afternoon
Pharaoh told us it have been strolling spherical and spherical in a circle as livestock in the last
level of red water normally do. Now it had come to a standstill, and become swaying backward
and forward with its head hanging down. So we tied him up to the stump of the tree as on the
preceding night, understanding that if the lioness did not kill him he might be useless via
morning. Certainly i used to be afraid that he could die straight away, in which case he could be
of but little use as a bait, for the lion is a sportsmanlike animal, and except he is very hungry
generally prefers to kill his very own dinner, even though when that is as soon as killed he's
going to come back to it again and again.

"Then we again went thru our revel in of the previous night, sitting there hour after hour, till at
ultimate Harry fell speedy asleep, and, although I’m acquainted with this type of element, even
I should scarcely maintain my eyes open. Certainly I was just losing off, whilst abruptly Pharaoh
gave me a push.

'Listen' he whispered.

"I used to be wide awake in a second, and listening with all my ears. From the clump of bush to
the proper of the lightning-shattered stump to which the not well ox turned into tied got here a
faint crackling noise. Currently it turned into repeated. Something turned into shifting there,

20
 A Tale of Three Lions

faintly and quietly sufficient, but nonetheless shifting perceptibly, for in the extreme stillness of
the night time any sound seemed loud.

"I awoke Harry, who immediately stated, 'wherein is she? Where is she?' and started out to
point his rifle approximately in a fashion that turned into extra risky to us and the oxen than to
any viable lioness.

'Be quiet!' I whispered, savagely; and as I did so, with a low and hideous growl a flash of yellow
light sped out of the clump of bush, past the ox, and into the corresponding clump upon the
opposite facet. The terrible sick creature gave a form of groan, staggered spherical after which
began to tremble. I should see it achieve this definitely inside the moonlight, which became
now very brilliant, and that i felt a brute for having uncovered the unlucky animal to such
discomfort as he have to surely be present process. The lioness, for it becomes her, handed so
quickly that we couldn't even distinguish her actions, a good deal less fire. Indeed at night time
its miles certainly vain to attempt to shoot until the item is very close and status flawlessly
nonetheless, after which the light is so deceptive and it's so hard to look the foresight that the
satisfactory shot will leave out extra often than he hits.

'She will be returned once more currently,' I stated; 'appearance out, however for Heaven's
sake do not fire except I tell you to.'

"Rarely had been the words out of my mouth when lower back she got here, and again
exceeded the ox without placing him.

'What on earth is she doing?' whispered Harry.

'Playing with it as a cat does with a mouse, I assume. She will be able to kill it currently.'

"As I spoke, the lioness all over again flashed out of the bush, and this time sprang proper over
the doomed and trembling ox. It was a lovely sight to peer her clean him in the vivid moonlight,
as although it had been a trick which she had been taught.

'I consider that she has escaped from a circus,' whispered Harry; 'it is jolly to see her soar.'

"I said not anything; however I thought to myself that if it changed into, Master Harry did now
not pretty respect the performance, and small blame to him. At any fee, his tooth was
chattering a little.

"Then came a longish pause, and that I commenced to assume that the lioness must have long
gone away, when suddenly she appeared again, and with one mighty sure landed right on to
the ox, and struck it a frightful blow along with her paw.

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 A Tale of Three Lions

"Down it went, and lay on the ground kicking feebly. She placed down her wicked-looking head,
and, with a fierce growl of contentment, buried her long white teeth inside the throat of the
demise animal. While she lifted her muzzle again it was all stained with blood. She stood
dealing with us obliquely, licking her bloody chops and creating a kind of purring noise.

'Now's our time,' I whispered, 'fireplace after I do.'

"I got directly to her as well as I could, however Harry, instead of expecting me as I informed
him, fired before I did, and that of direction moved quickly me. But whilst the smoke cleared, i
was thrilled to peer that the lioness became rolling approximately at the floor at the back of the
frame of the ox, which included her in one of these fashion, however, that we couldn't shoot
again to make an cease of her.

'She's completed for! She's dead, the yellow devil!' yelled Pharaoh in exultation; and at that
very second the lioness, with a type of convulsive rush, half of-rolled, half of-sprang, into the
patch of thick bush to the right. I fired after her as she went, however so far as I may want to
see without end result; certainly the possibility is that I ignored her smooth. At any rate she
were given to the bush in safety, and as soon as there, started to make one of these diabolical
noise as I in no way heard earlier than. She could whine and shriek with ache, and then burst
out into ideal volleys of roaring that shook the entire place.

'Well,' I said, 'we have to just permit her roar; to enter that bush after her at night could be
insanity.'

"At that moment, to my astonishment and alarm, there came an answering roar from the route
of the river, after which another from behind the swell of bush. Clearly there have been greater
lions about. The wounded lioness redoubled her efforts, with the item, I suppose, of
summoning the others to her assistance. At any charge they got here and quick too, for inside
five minutes, peeping thru the trees of our skerm fence, we saw a marvelous lion bounding
along towards us, via the tall tambouki grass that inside the moonlight searched for the entire
world like ripening corn. On he came in exquisite leaps, and a glorious sight it turned into to
peer him. When within fifty yards or so, he stood nonetheless in an open area and roared. The
lioness roared too; then there came a third roar, and every other brilliant black-manned lion
stalked majestically up, and joined quantity two, until virtually I started to recognize what the
ox ought to have undergone.

"'Now, Harry,' I whispered, 'something you do don't fire, it's too volatile. In the event that they
allow us to be, let them be.'

"Nicely, the pair marched off to the bush, wherein the wounded lioness was now roaring
double tides, and the 3 of them began to snarl and grumble away collectively there. Presently,

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 A Tale of Three Lions

but, the lioness ceased roaring, and the 2 lions came out again, the black-manned one first— to
prospect, I assume—walked to where the carcass of the ox lay, and sniffed at it.

'Oh, what a shot!' whispered Harry, who changed into trembling with pleasure.

'Yes,' I said; 'however do not hearth; they could they all come for us.'

"Harry stated nothing, however whether it became from the herbal impetuosity of children, or
because he became thrown off his balance by way of excitement, or from sheer recklessness
and devilment, i am sure I cannot let you know, by no means having been able to get a
excellent clarification from him; but at any rate the fact stays, he, without word or caution,
entirely disregarding my exhortations, lifted up his Wesley Richards and fired at the black-
manned lion, and, what is extra, hit it barely at the flank.

"Next second there was a maximum lousy roar from the injured lion. He glared around him and
roared with ache, for he changed into badly stung; and then, before I could make up my
thoughts what to do, the brilliant black-manned brute, virtually blind to the reason of his harm,
sprang right on the throat of his partner, to whom he evidently attributed his misfortune.

23