Hunting the Lions | Page 5

off in hot
pursuit of an enormous bee, which he saw humming round a bush.
About the same time, Wilkins fell behind to examine one of the
numerous plants that were constantly distracting his attention, so that
our hero was left for a time to hunt alone with the natives. He was
walking a considerable distance in advance of them when he came to a
dense thicket which was black as midnight, and so still that the falling
of a leaf might have been heard. Tom Brown surveyed the thicket
quietly for a few seconds, and observing the marks of some large
animal on the ground, he beckoned to the Caffre who carried his spare
double-barrelled gun. Up to this date our hero had not shot any of the
large denizens of the African wilderness, and now that he was suddenly
called upon to face what he believed to be one of them, he acquitted
himself in a way that might have been expected of a member of the
Brown family! He put off his shoes, cocked his piece, and entered the
thicket alone--the natives declining to enter along with him. Coolly and
very quietly he advanced into the gloomy twilight of the thicket, and as
he went he felt as though all the vivid dreams and fervid imaginings
about lions that had ever passed through his mind from earliest infancy
were rushing upon him in a concentrated essence! Yet there was no
outward indication of the burning thoughts within, save in the sparkle
of his dark brown eye, and the flush of his brown cheek. As he wore a
brown shooting-coat, he may be said to have been at that time Brown

all over!
He had proceeded about fifty yards or so when, just as he turned a
winding in the path, he found himself face to face with an old
buffalo-bull, fast asleep, and lying down not ten yards off. To drop on
one knee and level his piece was the work of an instant, but
unfortunately he snapped a dry twig in doing so. The eyes of the huge
brute opened instantly, and he had half risen before the loud report of
the gun rang through the thicket. Leaping up, Tom Brown took
advantage of the smoke to run back a few yards and spring behind a
bush, where he waited to observe the result of his shot. It was more
tremendous then he had expected. A crash on his right told him that
another, and unsuspected, denizen of the thicket had been scared from
his lair, while the one he had fired at was on his legs snuffing the air for
his enemy. Evidently the wind had been favourable, for immediately he
made a dead-set and charged right through the bush behind which our
hero was concealed. Tom leaped on one side; the buffalo-bull turned
short round and made another dash at him. There was only the remnant
of the shattered bush between the two; the buffalo stood for a few
seconds eyeing him furiously, the blood streaming down its face from a
bullet-hole between the two eyes, and its head garnished with a torn
mass of the bush. Again it charged, and again Tom, unable to get a
favourable chance for his second barrel, leaped aside and evaded it with
difficulty. The bush was now trampled down, and scarcely formed a
shadow of a screen between them; nevertheless Tom stood his ground,
hoping to get a shot at the bull's side, and never for a single instant
taking his eye off him. Once more he charged, and again our hero
escaped. He did not venture, however, to stand another, but turned and
fled, closely followed by the infuriated animal.
A few yards in front the path turned at almost right angles. Tom
thought he felt the hot breath of his pursuer on his neck as he doubled
actively round the corner. His enemy could neither diverge from nor
check his onward career; right through a fearfully tangled thicket he
went, and broke into the open beyond, carrying an immense pile of
rubbish on his horns. Tom instantly threw himself on his back in the
thicket to avoid being seen, and hoped that his native followers would

now attract the bull's attention, but not one of them made his
appearance, so he started up, and just as the disappointed animal had
broken away over the plain, going straight from him, he gave him the
second barrel, and hit him high up on the last rib on the off side, in
front of the hip. He threw up his tail, made a tremendous bound in the
air, dashed through bush-thorns so dense and close that it seemed
perfectly marvellous how he managed it, and fell dead within two
hundred