Long Odds | Page 6

and started. I would
have gone too, only I knew that somebody must look after the waggon,
and I did not like to leave either of the boys with it at night. I was in a
very bad temper, indeed, although I was pretty well used to these sort
of occurrences, and soothed myself by taking a rifle and going to kill
something. For a couple of hours I poked about without seeing
anything that I could get a shot at, but at last, just as I was again within
seventy yards of the waggon, I put up an old Impala ram from behind a
mimosa thorn. He ran straight for the waggon, and it was not till he was
passing within a few feet of it that I could get a decent shot at him.
Then I pulled, and caught him half-way down the spine. Over he went,
dead as a door-nail, and a pretty shot it was, though I ought not to say it.
This little incident put me into rather a better humour, especially as the
buck had rolled right against the after-part of the waggon, so I had only
to gut him, fix a reim round his legs, and haul him up. By the time I had
done this the sun was down, and the full moon was up, and a beautiful
moon it was. And then there came that wonderful hush which
sometimes falls over the African bush in the early hours of the night.

No beast was moving, and no bird called. Not a breath of air stirred the
quiet trees, and the shadows did not even quiver, they only grew. It was
very oppressive and very lonely, for there was not a sign of the cattle or
the boys. I was quite thankful for the society of old Kaptein, who was
lying down contentedly against the disselboom, chewing the cud with a
good conscience.
"Presently, however, Kaptein began to get restless. First he snorted,
then he got up and snorted again. I could not make it out, so like a fool
I got down off the waggon-box to have a look round, thinking it might
be the lost oxen coming.
"Next instant I regretted it, for all of a sudden I heard a roar and saw
something yellow flash past me and light on poor Kaptein. Then came
a bellow of agony from the ox, and a crunch as the lion put his teeth
through the poor brute's neck, and I began to understand what had
happened. My rifle was in the waggon, and my first thought being to
get hold of it, I turned and made a bolt for the box. I got my foot up on
the wheel and flung my body forward on to the waggon, and there I
stopped as if I were frozen, and no wonder, for as I was about to spring
up I heard the lion behind me, and next second I felt the brute, ay, as
plainly as I can feel this table. I felt him, I say, sniffing at my left leg
that was hanging down.
"My word! I did feel queer; I don't think that I ever felt so queer before.
I dared not move for the life of me, and the odd thing was that I seemed
to lose power over my leg, which developed an insane sort of
inclination to kick out of its own mere motion--just as hysterical people
want to laugh when they ought to be particularly solemn. Well, the lion
sniffed and sniffed, beginning at my ankle and slowly nosing away up
to my thigh. I thought that he was going to get hold then, but he did not.
He only growled softly, and went back to the ox. Shifting my head a
little I got a full view of him. He was about the biggest lion I ever saw,
and I have seen a great many, and he had a most tremendous black
mane. What his teeth were like you can see--look there, pretty big ones,
ain't they? Altogether he was a magnificent animal, and as I lay
sprawling on the fore-tongue of the waggon, it occurred to me that he
would look uncommonly well in a cage. He stood there by the carcass
of poor Kaptein, and deliberately disembowelled him as neatly as a
butcher could have done. All this while I dared not move, for he kept

lifting his head and keeping an eye on me as he licked his bloody chops.
When he had cleaned Kaptein out he opened his mouth and roared, and
I am not exaggerating when I say that the sound shook the waggon.
Instantly there came back an answering roar.
"'Heavens!' I thought, 'there is his mate.'
"Hardly was the thought out