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A Talk Of Three Lions

A Talk Of Three Lions image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
May
Year
1888
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Jl'jst of you will have heard of Alian Quatermain, who was one of the party that discovered Kin;; Solomon's mines sorno little time ago, and who afterward eame to live in England naar his friend, Sir Henry C'urtis. He has gone back to the wilderness now, as these old bonten almost invariahly do, on one pretest or another. They oaimot endure civil ization for very long, its noise and racket and tlie omnipresence of broadelothed hunianity proving more trying to their nerves tlian the dangera of the desert. I think that they feel lonely here, for it is a fact that is too little understood, though it has often been stated, that there isno loneUneaa likethe loneliness of crowds, especially to those who are unacoustomed to them. "What is there in the world," old Quatermain would say, "so desolate as to stand in the Street of a great city and listen to the footsteps falling, falling, multitudinous as the rain, and watch the white lino of faces as they hurry past, you know not whence, you know not whither. They come and go, their eyes meet yours with a cold stare, for a moment their features are written on your mind, and then they are gone forever. You will never see them again, they will never seeyouagain: they come up out of the unknown, and presently they once more vanish into the unknown, taking their secrets with them. Yes, that is loneliness pure and undefiled ; but to one who knows and loves it, the wilderness is not lonely, because the spirit of nature is ever there to keep the wanderer company. He flnds companions in the winds - the sunny streams babble like nature's children at his feet; high above him, in the purple sunset, are domes and minareis and palaces such as no mortal man hath built, in and out of whose flaming doors the glorious angels of the sun seem to move continually. And there, too, is the wild game following its feeding grounds in great armies, with the spriugbok thrown out before for skirmishers, then rank upon rank of long faced blesbuck marching and wheeling iiKü ïniantry, and last, tne shilling troops of quagga and the fierce eyed, shaggy vilder beeste to tako the place of the Cossack host that hangs upon au army's flanks. "Oh, no," he would say, "the wilderness is not lonely, for, my boy, remember that the further you get from man the nearer you grow to God," and, though this is a saying that might well be disputed, it is ono I ani sure that anybody will easily understaud who has watched the sun rise and set on the limitless, deserted plains, and seen the thun der ehariots of the elouds roll in majestj aoross the depths of unfathomable sky. Well, at auy rate he went back again, and now for many months I have heard nothing at all of him, and, to be frank, I greatly doubt if anybody will ever hear of him agaip t fear that the wilderness that has for so many years been a inother to him will now also prove his grave and the grave of those who accompanied him, for the quest upon whieh be and they started is a wild one indeed. But while he was in England for thos years or so between his return from the suocessful discovery of the wise king's buried treasures and the death of his only son, I saw a great deal of oíd Alian Quatermain. I had known him years before in África, and after he carne home, whenever I had nothlng bet ter to do, I used to run up to Yorkshire and stay with him, and in this way I at one time and another heard many of the incidents of his past Ufe, and most curious some of them were. No one oan pass all those years following the rough existenee of an elephant hunter without meeting with many strange adventures, and one way and another old Quatermain bas certainly seen his share. Well, the story that I am going to teil you is one of the later of these adventures, though I forget the exact year which it happened. At any rate I know that it was the only one of his trips upon which he took his son Harry (who is since dead) with him, and that Harry was then about 14. And now for the story, which I will repeat as nearly as I can in the words in which Hunter Quatermain told it to me one night in the old oak paneled vestibule of his house in Yorkshire. We were talking about gold mining. "Gold miningl" hebroke in. "Ah, yes; I once went gold mining at Pilgrim's Rest in the Transvaal, and it was before that that we had business about Jim-Jim and the lions. Do you know iti Well it is- or was- ono of the queerest little places you ever sa w. Tb? tcwn itself was pitched in a stony valley, with irountains all about it, and in the middle of such scenery as one does not often get the r-hance of seeing. Many and many is the timo that I have thrown down my piek and shovel in disgust, elambered out of my claim and walked a couple of miles or so to the top of some hill. Then I would lie down in the grass and look out over the glorious stretch of country- the smiling valleys, the great mountains touched with gold- real gold of the sunsot, and elothed in sweeping robes of bush, and stare into the depths of the perfect sky above; yes, and tliank heaven I had got away from the cursing and the coarse jokes of the miuers, and the voices of those Basutu Kafirs as they toiled in the sun, the memory of which is with me yet. Well, for some months I dug patiently at my claim till the very sight of a piek or of a washing trough became hateful to me. A hundred times a dav I lamented mv own follv in havimr vested L800, which was about all that I was worth at thi time, in thLs gold maling. But, like other better people before me, I had been bitten by the gold bug, and now had to take the consequenees. I had bought a claim out of whieh a mau had made a fortune - L5,000 or L0,000 at least- as I thought, very cheap; that is, I had given him L500 down for it. It was all that I had mado by a rough year's elephant hunting beyond the Zambesi, and I ligbed deeply and prophetlcally when I saw my successful friend, who was a Yankee, sweep up the roll of Standard bank notes with the lordly air of the man who mado his fortune and cram tliem into his broeches pockets. 'Well,' I said to him- tho happy vendor- 'it is a magnifieent property, and I only hope that my luck will be as good as yours has been.' Hosmilcd; to my excited ñervos it seemed that he smiled ominously, as he answered mo in a peculiar Yaukeo drawl: 'I guess, stranger, as I ain't tue one to make a man quarrel with his food, more es])eoiul when there ain't no moro going of tho rounds; and as ha that there claim, well, slie's been a good oiggar to me; but between you and me, stranger, speaking man to man. now that thero ain't any fllthy lueer between us to obsculate the feathers oL the truth, I guess she's about worked out!' "I gasped ; the fellow's effrontery took my breath out of me. Only five minutes before he had been swearing by all his gods - aud they appearal to be numerous and mixed- that there ware half a dozen fortunes loft in the claim, and that he was only giving it up because he was domiright weary of shoveling the gold out. " 'Don't look so vexed, stranger,' went on my tormentor, 'perhaps thero is some shine in tho old girl yet; any way you are a downright gxnl fellow, you are; therefore you will, I guess, have a real Al, old jam, píate glass opportunity of working cu the feelings of Fortune. Any way it will bring the muscle up on your arm, for the stuff is uncoinmon stiiF, and what is more, you will in the course of a year earn a sight more than $2.000 in value of experienee.' "And he went just in time, for in another minute I should have gone for him, and I saw hls face no more. "Well, I set to work on the old claim with my boy llarry and half a dozon Kafirs to heli) me, which, seeing that I had put ucarly all my worldly wealth into it, was the least I could do. And we worked, my word we did work- early and late we went at it-but never a bit of gold did we see; no, not even a nugget large enough to make a scarf pin out of. The American gentleman had , eured it all and left us the sweepings. "For three months this went on, till at last I paid away all, or very near all, that was left of our little capital in wages and food for the Kafirs and ourselves. When I teil you that Boer meal was sometimes as high as L4 a bag, you will understand that it did not take long to run through our banking account. "At last the crisis came. On Saturday iiight I had paid the men as usual, and bought a muid of mealie meal at COs. for them to fill tliem.selves with, and then I went with my boy Harry and sat on the edge of the great hole 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 feet hanging over the edge of the claim, and were melancholy enough for anything. Presently I pulled out my purse and emptied its contents into my hand. There was a half sovereign, two florins, ninepenee in silver, no coppers- for copper practically does not circuíate in South África, which is one of the things that make living so dear there- in all exactly fourteen and ninepence. " 'There, Harry my boy!' I said, 'that is the sum total of our worldly wealth; that hole has swallowed all the rest.' " 'By George,' said Master Harry, 'I say, father, you and I shall have to let ourselves out to work with the Kafirs and live on mealie pap,' and he sniggered at his unpleasant little joke. "But I was in no mood for jokng, for it is not a meiry thing to dig like anything for moutbs and be completely ruined in the process, especiully if you happen to dislike digging, and consequently I resented Harry's lightheartediiess. '"Bequiet, boy!' I said, raising myhand as though to give him a cuff, with the result that the half sovereign slipped out of it and feil into the gulf below. " 'Oh, Iwther,' said I, 'it's gone.' " 'There, dad,' said Harry, 'that's what comes of letting your angry passions rise; now we are down to four and nine.' "I made no answer to these words oí wisdom, but scrambled down the deep sides of ihe claim, followed by Harry, to hunt for my little all. Well, we hunted and we hunted, but the moonlight is an uncertain thing to look for half sovereigns by, and there was some loose soil about it, for the Kafirs had knocked off working at the very spot a couple of hours before. I took a piek and raked away the clods of earth with it, in the hope of finding the coin, but all in vain. At last, in sheer annoyance, I struck the sharp pickax down into the soil, which was of a very hard nature. To my astonishment it sunk in right up to the heft. " 'Why, Harry,' I . aid, 'this ground must have been disturbed !' " 'I don't think so, father,' he answered, 'but we will soon see,' and he began to shovel out the soil with his hands. 'Oh!' he said presently, 'it's only some old stones; the piek has gone down between them. Look!' And he began to pull at one of the stones. " 'I say, dad,' he said presently, almost in a whisper, 'ít's preeious heavy; feel it;' and he rose and gave me a round, brownish lump about the size of a very large apple, which ae was holding in both his hands. I took it curiously and held it up to the light. It was very heavy. The moonlight feil upon its rough and filth encrusted surface, and as I looked curious little thrills of excitement began to pass through me. But I could not be sure. " 'Give me your knife, Harry,' I said. "Hedidso; and resting the brown stone on my knee I scratched at its surfaee. Great heavens, it was soft I "Another second and the secret was out; we had found a great nugget of pure gold, four pounds of it or more. 'It's gold, lad,' I said, 'it's gold, lad, or I'm a Dutchman.' "Harry, with his eyes starting out of his head, glared down at the long gleaming yellow scratch that I had made upon the virgin metal, and then burst out into yell upon yell of exultation, that went ringing away across the silent claims like the shrieks of somebody being inurdered. " 'Be quiet,' I said, 'do you want every thief on the field af ter you?' "Seareely were the words out of my mouth when I heard a stealthy footstep approaching. I promptly put the big nugget down and sat on it, and uncommonly hard it was, and as I did so I saw a lean, dark face poked over the edge of the claim and a pair of beadv eves searchinïr s out. T L-npw t.h -- J O w - w . T T HUV face. It belonged to a man of very bad character known as Uandspike Tom, who had, I understood, beea so named at the diamond fields because he had murdered his mate with a handspike. He was now, no doubt, prowling about like a human hyena to see what he could steal. " 'Is that you, 'unter Quatermainï' he said. " 'Yes, it'a I, Mr. Tom ' I answered politely. " 'And wliat might all that there yelling be?' he asked. 'I was walking along, a-taking of the evcning air and a-thinking on tho stars, when I 'ears 'owl af ter 'owl.' " 'WéU, Mr. Tom,' I answered, 'that is not to be wondered at, seeing that, like yourself they are nocturnal birds.' " "Owl aíter 'owl!' he repeated sternly, taking no notice of my interpretation, 'and I stops and says, "That's murder," and I listens again and thinks, "No, it ain't; that 'owl is the 'owl of hexultation ; sorao one's been and .got his fingen into a gummy yeller pot, 111 swear, and gone off 'is 'ead In the sucking of them." Now, 'unter Quatermain, is I right? Is jt nuggets? Oh, lor!' and he smacked his lips audibly - 'groat big yellow boys- is it them that you just been and tunibled acrom t " 'Xo,' said I boldly, 'it isn't'- the cruel gleam in bis black eyes altogether overcoming my aversión to tho untruth, for I knew that ir he onra found out what it was that I was sitting ou - and, by tho way, I have heard of rolling in gold being spoken of as a pleasant process, but I certuinly do not recommend anybody who values comfort to try sitting on ït - I should run a very good chance of being 'handspiked' before the night was over. " 'If you want to know what it was, Mr. Tom,' I went on, with politest air, although in agony f rum the nugget underneath- for I hold it alwayt best to be polite to a uian who is so ready witli a handspike - 'my boy and I have had a slight differenco of opinión, and I was enforcing my viow of tho matter upon him; that wils all.' " 'Yes, Mr. Tom,' put in Harry, beginning to wecp, tor llarry was a smart boy, and saw the dillieulty we were in, 'that was it - I halloed because father beat me.' "'Wall, nxjw, did yer, my dear boy; did yer? Wcll, all I can say is that a played out old claim is a wouderf uily queersort of plaof to come to for to argify at lOoVlock ol night and what's more, my sweet youth, if ever 1 should 'ave tho argifying of yer'- and h leered unpleasantly at fiarry- 'yer won't 'ollar in Bucb a jolly sort o' way. And now Pil bo saying good night, íor I don't likt di turbing of i iaiiüly party. No, I ain't that sort of a man, I ain't. Good night to yer, 'unter Qoatenoain; good night to yer, my argified young one,' and Mr. lom turned away disappointed, and prowled off el.sewhere, like a human jackal, to He bat lie could thicvo or kill. " 'Thank gobdnessl' I said, as I slippel ofï the lump of gold. 'Now, tlii-n, do you get up, Harry, and see if that consummato villain lias gone.' Harry did so, and reported ■ that he had vanished toward Pilgrims' Rest, and then we Bet to work, and very earefully, but trembling with exeitement, with our hands hollowed out all the spaco of giound into which I liad struck the piek. Yes, as I had hoped, there was a regular nest of nuggets, twelvo in all, running from tlie size of a hazelnut to that of a hen's egg, though of course the first one was much larger than that. How they all eame there nobody can say: it was ono of those extraordinary freaks, with stories of which, at any rate, all people acquainted with alluvial gold mining will be familiar. It turned out afterward that the American who had sold me the claim had in the same way made his pile- a mucb larger one than ours, by the way - out of a single pocket, and then worked for six months without seeing color, after which he gave it up. "At any rate, there the uuggets were, to the value, as it turned out afterward, of about L1,250, so that after all I took out of that hole L450 more than I put into it. We got them all out and wrapped them up in a handkerchief, and then fearing to carry home so much treasure, especially as we knew that Handspike Toni was on the prowl, made up our minds to pass the uight where we were- a necessity which, disagreeable as it was, was wonderfully sweetened by the presenceof that ha. dkerchief full of virgin gold, which represented the interest of my lost half sovereign. "Slowly the night wore away, for with the fear of Handspike Tom before my eyes I did not dare to go to sleep, and at last the dawn uamo umsning üown tne somber ways oí night. I got up and wotehed its perfect growth, till it opened like a vast celestial flower upon the eastern sky, and the sunbeams began to spring in splenclor from mountain top to mountain top. I watched it, and as I did so it flashed upon me, with a complete conviction that I had not feit before, that I had had enough gold mining to last me the rost of my natural life, and I then and there uraue up my mind to clear out of Pilgrims' Rest and go and shoot buffalo toward Delagoa bay. Then I turned, took the piek and shovel, and, although it was a Sunday morniug, woke U{) Harry and set to work to see if there were any more nuggets about. As I erpecteJ, there was none. What we had got ha lain together in a littlo pocket fiUed with soil that feit quite different brom the stift stuff round and outside the pocket. There was not another trace of gold. Of eourse, it is possible that there were more pockets somewhera about, but all I have to say is I made up my mind that, whoever f ound them, I should not ; and, as a matter of fact, I have since heard that that claim has been the ruin of two or three people, as it very nearly was the ruin of me. " 'Harry,' I said presently, 'I am going away this week toward Delagoa to shoot buffalo. Shall I take you with me or send you dowu to Durbanf " 'Oh, take me with you, father,' begged Harry, 'I want to kili a buffalo.' " 'And supposing that the builalo kills you insteadf' I asked. ■' 'Oh, never mind,' he said, gayly, 'there are lots more where I came from.' "I rebuked him for his ilippancy, but in the end I consented to take hini." CHAPTER II. "Something over a fortnight had passed since the night when I lost half a sovereign and fouiKl L1,250 in looking for it, and instead of that horrid hole, for which, after all, El Dorado was scarcely a misnomer, a very different scène stretched away bef ore us ciad in the silver rot of the moonlight. We were camped- Harry and I, two Kafirs, a Scotch cart and six oxen - on the swelliiig side of a great wave of bush ciad land. Just where we made our camp, however, the bush was very sparse and only grew about in clumps, while here and there were single fiat topped mimosa trees. To our right a little stream, which had cut a doep chaimel for itself in the bosom of tlie slope, flowed musically on between bauks green with maidenhair, wild asparagus and many beautiful grasses. The bed rock here was red granite, and in the course of centuries of patiënt washing the water had hollowed out some of the huge slabs in its path kito great troughs and cups, and these we used for bathing places. No Roman lady, with her baths of porphyry or alabaster, could have had a more delicious spot to lave herself than we had within fifty yards of our skerm or rough inclosure of mimosa thorn that we had dragged together round our cart to protect us from the attacks of lions. There were several of these about, as I kuew from their spoor, though we had ncither beard nor seen them. "It was a Iittlo nook where tlie eddy of the stream had washed avvay a maag of soil, and on the edge of it there grew a most beautiful oíd mimosa thurn. Boneath the tliorn was a large smooth slab of granito fringed all round w it li maidenhuir and other ferns, that Bloped gently down to a poolof tho clearest sparkling water, which lay in a bowl of granite about ten feet wide by five feet deep . in the center. Here to this slab we weut every morning to bathe, and that delightful bath is among the most pleasant of my hunting reminisoences, as it is also for reasons that will presently appear among the most painful. "It was a lovely night and Ilarry and I sat there to the windward of the fire, at which the two Kafirs were busily employed in cooking some impala steaks olï a buck which Harry, to his great joy, had shot that morning, and were as perfectly contented with ourselves and the world at large as two people could possibly be. The night was beautiful; it vvould require somebody with raore words on tho tip of their tongue thun I have to properly desoribe the chastcned majesty of those moonlit wilds. Away forever and forever, away to tho mysterious noilh, rolltd the great buafc ocean over which the silence brooded. T hero bcueath us, a mile or more to the right, ran the wido üliphant and mirror like flathed back tho moon, whose silver apean were shivered on its breaat and then tossed in twisted lines of ligbt far and wide about tho mountoins and the plain. Down upon the ri ver banks grew great timber trees that, through the stillness, pointed solemnly tu heavon, and the beauty of the night lay upon them like a cloiul. Everywhere was silenee - silence in the starrod depths, silenoe on the fair bosom of the sleeping earth. Now, if ever, great thoughts m ht riso in a man's raind, and far a spaea he might looso his littleness in tlie sense that ho partook of the pure immensity alxjut him. Almost miglit he seem to see the spirit of the heavens, girdled round with stai-s, passing down in the dead quiet to look, now tliat tha night had covered up her sius, u]hjii tho sleeping face of his lost brida, the uaith. Alruost might lie hear the echoea of angellc rofoaa, as the pirita poised on bent and rushing piniona swept ouward from univene ti universo; and distinguisb 1 h white Bngen of the wind playing in the tree oí thé trees. "Hark! bat was that;" "Fronxfaraway down bytbe river there cornos a mighty rolling sound, then another and aaother. It Is the tion seeking his ineat. "I aaw Harry shiver and turn a littu pate. Ho was a plucky loy enough, but the roar of. a Uon for the flrat time in the soleara busli wldt ai night isapt to shake the nen anv lad. '"Ijons, mj boy,' tsaid; 'they are lumtfng down l.v the rlver there; bat l don't think that yon oeed make yourself uneasy. We have Uvu here three Qtghta now and if they were gaing to pay os a visitlshoald think that they would have done s. before this. However, we will make up the flre.' "'Itere, Pharaoh, do you and Jim-Jim get somt' more wood before we go to sleep, else the cats will be purting round before moming.' ■■Pharaoh. a great brawny Bwazi, who had been worldng f or me at Pilgrim's Rast, laughed. rose and stretched himself, and then caUing to Jim-Jim to bring the ax and a reiin, started oif in the mounlight towarri a dump of sugar bush, where we cut our fuel from some dead tre(s. He was a fine fellovv in his way, was Pharaoh, and 1 think that he had been named Pharaoh because he had an Egyptian cast of countcnance and a roya] sort o swagger alxut him. But his ay was a eomevhat iH'culiar way, on account of tlie uneertainty of his temper, and very few i..ople could get on with him; also, if he could get it, he would drink like a fish, and when he drank he became shockingly bloodthirsty. These were his bad points; his good ones were that, like most people of the Zulu blood, he became exceedingly attached to one if he took to you at all; he was a hard worldng and intelligent man, and about as dare devil and plucky a tellow at a pinchas I have ever had to do with. He was alxmt five and tliirty vaan of age or so, but not a 'keshla' or ringed man. I believe that he got into trouble in sjme way in Swaziland, and the authorittos of his tribe would not allow him to assume the ring, and that is why he carne to work at the gold fields. The other man, or ratfaer lad, Jim-Jim, was a Mapoch Katir, or Knobnose, aiul even in the light of subsequent events I fear that I cannot six'ak very well oL liim. He was an idle and carelees youiig rascal, and only that very morning I had to teil Pharaoh to give him a beating for letting the oien stray, which he did with the greatest gusto, although he was, by the way, very fond of Jini-Jim. Indeed, I saw him consoling JimJim afterwards with a pinch of snuff from his own ear box whilst he explained to him that the next time it came in the way of duty to flog him he meant to thrash him with the other hand, so as to cross the old euts and 'a pretty pattern ou his back.' "Well, off they went, though Jim-Jim djd not at all like leaving the camp at that hour, even when the moonlight was so bright, and in due eour.se returned safely enough with a great bundie of wood. I laughed at Jim-Jim and asked him if he had seeu anything, and he said yes, he had ; he had seen t wo large, yellow eyes staring at hún from behind a bush and heard something snore. "As, however, ou further investigation, tos yellow eyes and the snore appeared to have existed only in Jim-Jim's lively imagination, I was not greatly disturbed.by this alarming report, but, having seen to the making up of the fire, got into the skerm and went quietly to sleep with Harry by my side. "Some hours afterwards I woke up with a start. I don't kuow what woke me. The moon had gone down, or at least was almost hidden behind the soft horizon of bush, only her red rim boing visible. Also a wind had prang up and was driviug long hurrying lines of cloud across the starry sky, and altogether a great change had come over the mood of tho uight. By the look of the skv I judged we raust be about t-.vo hours f rom daybreak. "The oxen, whieh were as usual tied to the ■iisselboom of the Scotch cart, were restless - they ke)t snufiing and blowing and rising up and lying down again, so I at once susI speeted that they must wind something. Preseutly I knew wliat it was that they winded, for within lifty yards of usa lion roared, not very loud, but quite loud cuough to make my heart come into my mouth. "Pharaoh was sleei)ing on the other side of the cart, and beneath it I saw him raise his head and listen. " 'Lion, Inkoos,' he whispered, 'lion.' "Jim-Jim also jumped up, and by the faint light I could see that he was in a very great fright indeed. "Thinking that it was as well to be prepared for emergencies, I told Pharaoh to throw wood upon the fire, nnd woke up Harry, who I verily believe was eapablo of sleeping happily through the crack of doom. He was a little scared at first, but presently the excitement of the position carne home to him, and he became quite anxious to see hú majt sty face to face. I got my rifle handy and gave Harry his- a Westly Richards ing uiot'K, wmcn is a very useiui gun tor a youth, being light and yet a good killing rifle - and then we waited. "For a long time uothiug happened, and I began to think that the best tliing that we could do would be to go to sleep again, when suddenly I heard a sound more like a eough than a roar within about twenty yards of the Bkerm. We all looked out, but could sea nothing; and then followed another period of suspense. It was very trying to the nerves, this waiting for an attack that might be developed from any quarter, or might not be developed at all; and though I was an old hand at this soit of business, I was amious about Harry, for it ia wonderful how the presence of nnybody to whoin oue is attached unnervus a man in moments of danger, and that made me nervous. I know, although it was nowchilly enough, I could feel the perspiration running down my nose, and in order to relieve the strain on my attention, employed mysclï in watching a beetle which appeared to be attracted by the firelight, and was sitting before it thoughtfully rubbiug nis aiitcnna' against each other. "Suddenly the beetle gave such a jump that he nearly pitched headloug loto the fire, and so did we all - gave junips, í mean, and no wonder, for from right under the skerm fence there carne a most frightful roar - a roar that literally made the .Scotch cart shake and shake ajid took the bivath out of me. "Harry made an exclamation, Jim-Jim howled outiight, while the poor oxen, who were terrified almost out of their hides, shivered and lowed liteously. "The iiight was almost entirely dark now. for the inoon had quite set and the clouds had eovercd up the stars, so that the only llght that we had carne from the fire, which by tbis time was buruing up brightly again. But, as you know, firelight is absolutely useless to shoot by, it is so uncertain, and besides it penetraties but a very httle way into the darkness, although iL one is in the dark outside one can see it from so far away. "Preseutly the oxen, after standing still for a moment, suddenly winded the lion and did what I feared they would - legan to 'skrek,' that is, to try and break looso from the trektow to which they wère tied, and rush off madly into the wilderness. Liona know of tliis habit on the part of oxen, which are, I do believe, the most foolish aninials der tlie snn, a shecp being a v-ry Solomon comparecí to them, and it is by do means uucommon for a lion togetin such a posltion that a nrd or á]an of oxni may wind liini, krek, breafc their reine and rush off into the bush. CM ceñirse, once theyare therethej are heiptaas in thedark; and thentha lion chooses the one that he loves !■ and eats him at liis leisure, "Well, round and round went our six ixor oxen, ïioarly trampling ua to deatli in their mad rush; Indeed, bad we not liastily tumbled out of the way we shojitd Imve been trampled to death, or at the least teriously injunxl. As it was, Harry rm nui over, and po. Jim-Jiiu being oaught by the trektow mmewbere beneath the min. was hurled rigtatacron tho akerm, landing bymyaid only some poes off. "Snap went the diaselboom o( the cart beneath tlie tiaasversestrain pat ii]xm it. Had it not broken the cart would have overeet ; at it was, in another minute, oren, cart, trektow, reiins, hroken disselbooni, and everything ereaoon tded in one vast heaving, plnnglng, bellowtng andseemingly inextricable kuot. "For a moment or two thi state oC affairs took my attention olï from the lion that had caused it, lut while I was wondering what on irth was to be done next, and what we should do i( the cattle broke loose into the bush and were lost, for cattle frightened in this manner will go right away like mad things, it was suddenlj reealled in a very painful lasliion. [Continucd in our mkU}

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Old News
Ann Arbor Register