Long Odds | Page 6

back along the Middelburg Road, and are a dozen miles
off by now, I'll be bound. Now, no words; go both of you.'
"Tom, the driver, swore, and caught the lad a hearty kick, which he
richly deserved, and then, having tied old Kaptein up to the disselboom
with a reim, they took their assegais and sticks, 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 over 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 down 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 realize 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 it. I got my foot 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 had 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 there 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