Hunting the Lions | Page 6

yards.
Note. If the reader should desire fuller accounts of such battles, we
recommend to him African Hunting, a very interesting work, by W.C.
Baldwin, Esquire, to whom, with Dr Livingstone, Du Chaillu, and
others, I am indebted for most of the information contained in this
volume,-- R.M.B.
The moment it fell the natives descended from the different trees in
which they had taken refuge at the commencement of the fray, and
were lavish in their compliments; but Tom, who felt that he had been
deserted in the hour of need, did not receive these very graciously, and
there is no saying how far he might have proceeded in rebuking his
followers (for the Brown family is pugnacious under provocation) had
not the major's voice been heard in the distance, shouting, "Hallo! look
out! a buffalo! where are you, Tom Brown, Wilkins?"
"Hallo!" he added, bursting suddenly into the open where they were
standing, "what's this--a--buffalo? dead! Have 'ee killed him? why, I
saw him alive not two minutes--"
His speech was cut short by a loud roar, as the buffalo he had been in
chase of, scared by the approach of Wilkins, burst through the
underwood and charged down on the whole party. They fled right and
left, but as the brute passed, Wilkins, from the other side of the open,
fired at it and put a ball in just behind the shoulder-blade. It did not fall,
however, and the three hunters ran after it at full speed, Wilkins leading,
Tom Brown next, and the major last. The natives kept well out of
harm's way on either side; not that they were unusually timid fellows,
but they probably felt that where such able hands were at work it was
unnecessary for them to interfere!

As the major went racing clumsily along--for he was what may be
called an ill-jointed man, nevertheless as bold as a lion and a capital
shot-- he heard a clatter of hoofs behind him, and, looking over his
shoulder, observed another buffalo in full career behind. He stopped
instantly, took quick aim at the animal's breast, and fired, but
apparently without effect. There chanced to be a forked tree close at
hand, to which the major rushed and scrambled up with amazing
rapidity. He was knocked out of it again quite as quickly by the shock
of the tremendous charge made by the buffalo, which almost split its
skull, and rolled over dead at the tree-root, shot right through the heart.
Meanwhile Tom Brown and the lieutenant had overtaken and killed the
other animal, so that they returned to camp well laden with the best part
of the meat of three buffaloes.
Here, while resting after the toils of the day, beside the roaring
camp-fires, and eating their well-earned supper, Hicks the trader told
them that a native had brought news of a desperate attack by lions on a
kraal not more than a day's journey from where they lay.
"It's not far out o' the road," said Hicks, who was a white man--of what
country no one knew--with a skin so weather-beaten by constant
exposure that it was more like leather than flesh; "if you want some
sport in that way, I'd advise 'ee to go there to-morrow."
"Want some sport in that way!" echoed Wilkins in an excited tone;
"why, what do you suppose we came here for? Of course we'll go there
at once; that is, if my comrades have no objection."
"With all my heart," said the major with a smile as he carefully filled
his beloved pipe.
Tom Brown said nothing; but he smoked his pipe quietly, and nodded
his head gently, and felt a slight but decided swelling of the heart, as he
murmured inwardly to himself, "Yes, I'll have a slap at the lions
to-morrow."
CHAPTER THREE.

IN WHICH GREAT DEEDS ARE DONE, AND TOM BROWN HAS
A NARROW ESCAPE.
But Tom was wrong. Either the report had been false, or the lions had a
special intimation that certain destruction approached them; for our
hunters waited two nights at the native kraal without seeing one,
although the black king thereof stoutly affirmed that they had attacked
the cattle enclosures nearly every night for a week past, and committed
great havoc.
One piece of good fortune, however, attended them, which was that
they unexpectedly met with the large party which the major had
expressed his wish to join. It consisted of about thirty men, four of
whom were sportsmen, and the rest natives, with about twenty women
and children, twelve horses, seventy oxen, five wagons, and a few dogs;
all under the leadership of a trader named Hardy.
Numerous though the oxen were, there were not too many of them, as
the reader may easily believe when we tell him that