A Tale Of Three Lions

[CONCLUDED.] "For at that moment I pereeived by the light of the fire a kind of gleam of yellow traveling through the air toward us. "'The lion! the lion!' holloaed Pharaoh, and as he did so he, or she, for it was a great, gaunt lioness, half wild, no doubt, with hunger, lit right in the middle of the skerm, and stood there in the smoky gloom and lashed her tail and roared. I seized my rifle and fired it at her, but what between the confusión and my agitation and the uncertain light, I missed her and nearly shot Pharaoh. Tho flash of the rifle, however, threw the whole scène into strong relief , and a wild one it was, I can teil you- with the seething masa of oxen twisted all around the cart in such a fashion that their heads looked as though they were growing out of their rumps and their horns seemed to protrude from their backs; the smoking fire, with just a blaze in the heart of the smoke; Jim in the foreground, where the oxen had thrown him in their wild rusli, stretched out there in terror; and then, as a center to the picture, the great, gaunt lioness glaring round with hungry, yellow eyes, roaring and winning as she made up her mind what to do. "It did not take her long, however- just as long as it takes a flash to die into darkness- for before I could fire again or do aDything, with a most fiendish snort s.he spraag upon poor Jim-Jim. "I heard the unfortunate lad shriek, and then almost instantly I saw his legs thrown into the air. The lioness had seized him by the neek, aiid with a sudden jerk thrown his body over her back so that his legs hung down at the further side. "Then, without the slightest hesitation and apparently without any difflculty, she cleared the skerm fence at a single bound, and, bearing poor Jim-Jira with her, vanished into the darkness beyond in the direction of the bathing place that I have already described. We jumped up, perfectly mad with horror and fear, and rushed after her, flring shots at haphazard, on the chance that she would be frightened by them into dropping her prey, but nothing could we seo and nothing could we hear. The lioness had vanished into the darkness, taking Jim-Jim with her, and to attempt to fpllow her till daylight was madness. We should only exposé ourselves to the risk of a like fate. "So with scared and heavy hearts we crept back to the skerm and sat down to wait for daylight, whieh now could not bo nmchmore than au hour off. It was absolutely useless to try even to disentangle the oxen till then so all that was lef t for us to do was to sit and wonder how it came to pass that one should be taken and the other left, and to hope against hope that our poor servant might have been niorcif ully delivered from the lion's jaws. At length the faint light came stealing likoa ghostup the long slopo of bush and glinted on the tangled oxen's horns and with frightened faces we got up and' set to the task of disentangling the oxen till such time as there should be light enough to enable us to follovv the trail of the lioness which had gone off with JimJim. And here a fresh trouble awaited us, for when at last with infinite difficulty, we had got the great helpless brutos loóse, it was only to flnd that one of them was very sick. There was no mistake about the way he stood with his legs slightly apart and his head hanging down He had got the red water; I was sure of it. Of all the diffieultiès connected with life and traveling in South África those connected with oxen are perhaps the worst. The ox ia the most exasperating animal in the world a negro excepted. He has absolutely no co'nstitution, and never neglects an opportunitv oí lamng siek of some mysterious disease. He will get thin upon the slightest provoeation, and from mere maliciousness die of 'poverty;' whereas it is his chief delight to turn round and refuse to pull whenever he finds himself well in the center of a river or the wagon wheel nicely fast in a mud hole. Drivo him a few miles over rough roads and youwillfmd that he is footsore; turn him loóse to feed and you will discover that he has run away, or if he has not run away he i has of nialico aforethought eaten 'tulip' and poisoned himself. There is always something wrong with him. The ox is a brute. It was of a piece with his aecustomed behavior for the one in question to break out -on purpose, probably- with redwater just when a Kon had walked off with his herder. I It was exactly what I should have expected I and I was therefore neither disappointed nor Buri)rised. "Well, it was no use crying, as I should almosf havo liked to do, because if this ox had redwater it was probable that the rest of them had it too nlthrmaVi fKc1r kAj i I -J -O ""'■'J ÍUA4 WCH BOld to me as 'salted,' that ie, proof against such diseases as redwater and lung sick. One gets hardened to this sort of thing in South África in course of time, for I suppose rn no othnr country in tho world is the waste of animal life so great. "Se, taking 1117 rifle and telling Harry to follow me (for we had to leave Pharaoh to look after the oxen- Pharaoh's lean kine I called thern), I started to see if anything could be found of or appertaining to the unfortunate Jim-Jim. Theground round our little camp was hard and rocky, and we could not hit ofï any spoor of the lioness, though just outside the skerm we saw a drop or two of blood. About 300 yards from tho camp, and a little to the right, was a patch of sugar bush, mixed with the usual mimosa, and for this I made, thinking that the lioness would have been sure to tako her prey there to devour it. On we pushed through the long grass, tliat was bent down beneath the weight of the soaking dew. In two minutes we were wet through up to thighs, as wet as though we had waded through water. I In duo course, however, we reached the I patch of bush, and in tho gray light of the morning cautiously and slowly pushed our way into it. It was very dark under the trees, for the sun was not yet up, so we walked with the most extreme care, half e.xpecting every minute to come across the lioness licking the boues of poor Jim-Jim. But no lioness could ne see, anrl as for Jim-Jim there was not even a finger joint of liim to be found. Eridently they had not come here. "So puslimg through the bush we proceeded to hunt every other likely spot about, with the same result. " 'I suppose sho must have taken lam right away,' I said at last, sadly enough. 'At any rate, he will be dead by now, so God have mercy on hira, we can't help him. What's to be done now?' " 'I suppose that we had better wash ourselves iu the pool and then go back and get something to eat. I ara filthy,' said Harry. "This was a practical, if a somewhat unfeeling, suggestion. At least it struck me as unfeeling to talk of washing when poor JimJim had been so recently eaten. However, I did not let my sentiment carry me away, 'so we went down to the beautiful spot that X have described, to wash. I was the flrst to reach it, which I did by scrambling down the terny bank. Then I turned round and started back with a yell, as well I might, for from almost boneath my feet there carne a most awful snarl. I had lit down almost upon the back of the honess, who had been sleeping on the slab where we stood to dry ourselves after bathing. With a snarl and a growl, before I could do anything, before I could even cock my rifle, she had bounded right across the crystal pool and vanished over the opposite bank. It was all done in an instant, as quick as 'thought. "She had been sleeping on the slab, and oh, horror I what was that sleeping beside her ? It was the red remains of poor JimJim, lying on a patch of blood stained rock "Oh! father, father!' shrieked Harry, 'look in the water.' "I looked. There, floating in the center of the lovely, tranquil pool, was Jim-Jim's head. The lioness had bitten it right off and it had rolled down the sloping rock into the water. CHAPTER III. "Poor Jira-Jim ! We buried what was left of him, which was not very much, in an old bread bag, and though whiist he lived his virtues were not great, now that he was gone we could have wept over him. Indeed, Harry did weep outright; while I registered a quiet ]ittle vow on my own account that I would let daylight into that lioness before I was 48 hours older, if by anymeansit could bedone. VV e buried him and there he lies whero the hons will not trouble him any more So there is an end oí the book of Jim-Jün. "The quastion that now remained was how to circumvent his murderess. I knew that she would be sure to return as soon as she would be hungry again, but I did not know when she would be hungry. She had left so httle of Jim-Jim behind her that I should scareely expect to see her the next night unless indeed she had cubs. Stil], I feit that it would not be wis tr. m=o .„ chance of her coming, so we set about making preparations for her reeeption. The first thing that we did was to strengttien the bush wall of the skerm by dragging a large quantity of the tops of thora trees together and laymg them one on the other in such a fashion that the thorns pointed upwards. This after our experience of the f ate of Jim, seemed a very necessary precaution, siuce if where one sheep can jump another can follow, as the Kafirs say, how much more is this the case where an animal so active and so vigorous as the lion is concerned I And now carne the further question, how were we to beguile the honess to return ? Lions are animáis that have astrange knackof appearing when they arenotwanted, and keeping studiously out ol the way when their presence is required "Harry, who, as I have said, was an eminently practical boy, suggested to Pharaoh that he should go and sit outside the skerm in the moonlight as a sort of bait, assuring him that he would have nothing to fear, as we would certainly kiU the lioness before she killed him. Pharaoh, however, strangely enough, did not seem to take to this suggestion indeed, lio walked away, much put out with Harry for haviug made it. "It gave me an idea, however " 'Well,' I said, 'there is that ox. He must diesooner or later, so we may as well utiliza him.' "Now, about thirty yards to the left of our skerm, if one stood facing down the hill toward the river, was the stump of a tree that had beeu destroyed by lightning many years before, standing equidistantly between but a Jittlo in frout of, two clumps of bush which were severally some flfteen paces f rom it. "Hero was the very place to tie the ox: and accordingly a little before sunset the poor animal was led forth by Pharaóh and made fast therc, little knowing, poor brute for what purpose; and we commenced our long vigil, this time without a fire, for our object was to attract the lioness and not to scare her. "For hour af ter hour we waited, keeping ourselves awake by pinching each other-it is, by the way, remarkable what a difference m the forcé of pinches requisito to the occasion existo in the mind of pincher and pinchee- but no lioness came. The moon waxed and the moon waned, and then at last the moon went down, and darkness swallowed up the world, but no lion came to swallow us up. We waited til! dawn, because wedid notdare to go to sleep, and then at last we took such rest as we could get. "That morniug we went out shooting, not because we wanted to, for we were too depressed and tired , but because we had no more meat. Por three hours or more we wandered about in a broiling sun looking lor something to kil], but absolutely with no resulte. For some unknown reason the game had grown very scarce about the spot I though when I was thei-e two years before every sort of large game except rhinoceros and elephant was particularly abundant The lious, of whoin there were many, alone remained, and I fancy it was the fact of tho game they live on having temporarily migrated that made them so daring and ■ ,u3. i n (jeuurai ruie a non ís an aniiablo animal enough if he is let alone, but a I hungry lion is almost as dangerous as a I hungry man. One hears a great many difI ferent opinions expressed as to whether or no the lion is remarkable for his courage, I but tho result of my experience is that very' I I much depeuds upon the state of his stomaeh A hungry lion will not stick at a trifle whereas a full one will flee at a very small I rebuke. "WeU, we hunted all about and nothing could we seo, not even a duck or a bush buck, and at last, thoroughly tired and out of temper, wo started on our way back to camp, passing over the brow of a steepish hill to do so. just as we got over the ridge I f rozo up like a pointer dog, for tuero, about 000 yards to my left, his beautiful curved horas outlined against the soft blue of the sky, I saw a noble koodoo buil (strepsiceros kudu). Eveu at that distance- for, as you know, my eyes are very keen- I eould distinctly see the white stripes upon its side when the light feil upon it and its large and pointed ears twitch as the flies worried it. "Sofarsogood; but how were we to get at it? It was ridiculous to risk a shot at that great distance, and yet both the ground and the wind lay very ill for stalking. It seemed to me that the only chance would be to make a detour of at least a mile or more and come up on the other sido of the koodoo. I called Harry to my sido and i - piaiiieJ to hira what I thouglit would be our best course, when suddenly, without auy delay, the koodoo saved us any further trouble by suddeuly starting off down the hill like a leaping roeket. I don't know what had frightened it; certainly we had not. Perhaps a hyena or a leopard- a tiger as we cali it there- had suddenly appeared; at any rate off it went, running slightly toward us, and I uuver sawabuck go faster. As for Harry, ho stood watching the beautiful animal'B course. Presently it vanished behind a patch of bnsh, to emerge a few seconds later about 500 pares from us, on a stretch of comparatively lovel ground that wasstrewn witli bowlden. On it went, tak ing the bowlders in its path in a succession of great bounds that wei-e beautiful to behold. As it did so I happened to look round at Harry, and perceived to my astonishment that he had got his rifle to his shoulder. "'You foolish boy!' I ejaculated, 'surely you are not going to'- and just at that moment the rifle went off. "And then I think I saw what was, in its way, one of the most wonderful things I ever remember in my hunting experience. The Koodoo was at the moment in the air, clearing a pile of stones with its fore legs tucked uu underneath it. All in an instant the legs stretched themselves out iu a spasmodie fashion, and it lit on them and they doubled up beneath it. Down went the noble buck down on to its head. For a moment it seemed to be standing on its horns, its hind legs high in the air, and then over it went and lay Mil "'Greatheavens!' Isaid, 'why, you've hit nim! He'sdead.' "As for Harry, he said nothing, but merely looked scared, as well he might. A man, let alone a boy, might have fired a thousandsuch shots without ever touching the object, which, mind you, was springing and bounding over rocks quite 500 yards away, and here this lad, taking a snap shot and merely aUowing for elevation by iustinct, for he did not put up his sights had knocked tho buil over as dead as a door nail. Vvell, I made no furthnr rmpt tv,Q nnn„ siou was too solemn for talking- but merely led the way to where the koodoo lay. There he was, beautiful and quite still, and there high up, about half way down his neck, was a neat, round hole. The bullet had severed the spinal marrow, passing right through the vertebra; and away on tho other side "It was already evening when, having cut as much of the best meat as ivo eould carry from the buil, and tied a red haudkerchief andsometufts of grass to his spiral horns which, by tho way, must have been nearly five feet in length, in the hope of keoping jackals and aasvogels (vultures) from hini we finally got back to camp to lind Pharaoh' who was getting rather anxious at our absence, ready to greet us with the pleasing intelligence that another ox was siek. But even this dreadful bit of intelligence could not dash Harry's spirits, the fact of tho uer oemg tnat, incredible as it may appear I do verily believe that in his heart of hearts he set down the death of that koodoo to the credit of his oira skill. Now, though the lad was a tidy shot enough, this of course was ridiculous, and I told him so very plainly. "By the time that we had flnished our supper of koodoo steaks (which would have been better if the koodoo had been a little younger) it was time to get ready for Jim-Jim's murderess again. AU the afternoon Pharaoh told us the uiifortunate ox had been walking round and round in a circle as cattle in the last stages of redwater generally do. Now it had come to a standstill, and was swaying to and fro with its head hanging down. So we tied him up to the stump of the tree as on the previous night, knowing that if the lioness did not kill him he would be dead by morning. Indeed, I was afraid that he would be of little use as a bait, for a lion is a sportsmanlike animal, and, unless ho is very hungry, generally prefers to kill his own dinner though when once killed he will comeback' L it again and again. "Then we repeated our experienceof the irevious night, sitting there hour after hour -ill at last Harrv wpnt ifcf. ■ . i...., . „„.j ! , though I am accustomed to this sort of thing, eould scarcely keep my eyes open. Indeed, I was just dropping off, wheu Pharaoh gave me a sbove. " 'Listen!' he whispered. "I was all awake in a second, and listening witli all my ears. FVom the clump of bush to the right of the lightning shattered stump to which the ox was tied carne a faint crackling noise. Presently it was repeated. Something was moving there, f aintly and quietly enough but still moving perceptibly, for in the intense stillness of the night any sound seemed loud. "I woke up Harry, who instantly said'Where is shei Where is shei' and began to I pomthis rifle about in a fashion that was more dangerous to us and the oxen than to any possible lioness. 'Hush up!' I whispered savagely ; and as I did so with a low and hideous growl a flash of yello w light sped out of the dump of bush past the ox, and into the correspouding clump' upon the other side. The poor sick bruto gave a ui i, ui groan, ana staggered round and then began to tremble. I could see it do so clearly in the moonlight, which was now very bright, and I feit a brute for ha ving exposed the unfortunate animal to such terror as ho must undoubtedly be undergoing. The Iioness, for it was she, passed so quickly that wo could not even distinguish her movements, much less shoot. Indeed at night it is absolutely useless to attempt to shoot unless the object is very close and standing perfeetly stilt, and then the light is so deceptive and it is so difficult to see the foresight that the best shot will miss more often than he hits. " 'She will be back again presently,' I said: I 'look out, but for heaven's sake don't (re unless I teil y ou to.' "Hardly were the words out of my mouth when back she camo and again passed the ox without striking him. " 'What on earth is she doing?' whispered Harry. " 'Playing witli it as a cat does a mouse, I supposo. She will killit presently.' 'As I spoke the lioness once more flashed out of the bush, and this tiino sprang right over the doomod ox. It was an exeiting sight to seo her clear him in the bright moonlight, as though it were a trick that she had been taught. " 'I believe that she escaped from a circus, whisperedHarry; 'it's jolly to see her jump. ' "I said nothing, but I thought to myself that if it was Master Harry did not quite appreciate the performance, and small blame to him. At any rate, his teeth were chattering a bit. "Then carne a longish pause, and I began to think that she must havo gone away, when suddenly she appeared again, and' with ono mijrlitv bound landccl rii.-ht. nn tr. the ox and struck it a frightíuJ blow with her paw. "Down it went, and lay on the ground. She put down tier wicked looking head with a fierco growl of contentment. When she lifted her muzzle again and stood facing us obliquely, I whispered, 'Now's our tune. firo when I do.' "I got on to her as well as I could, but Harry, instoatl of waiting for me as I told him, fired bofore I did, and that of course hurried me. When the smoke cleared, however, I was delighted to seo that the lioness was rolling about on the ground behind the body of the ox, which covered her in such u fashion, however, that we could not ghoot auaiu to nmke au end of her. '"Sho's done for! she's dead" yelled Pharaoh in exultation; and at that very moment the lioness, ith a sort of convulsiva rush, half roUed, half sprang into the patch of thick bush to tho right. I fired aftor her as she went, but so far as I could see without result. Indeed, the probabüity is that I missed her clean. At any rato, she got to the bush in safety, and once there, began to mako such a diabolical noise as I never lieard before. She would whino and shriek, then burst out into perfect volleys of roaring that shook the whole place. " 'Well,' I said, 'we must just let her roar; to go into that bush after her at night would be madness.' "At that moment, to my astonishment and alarm, there carao an answering roar from the direction of the river and theu another from behind the swell of bush. Evidently there were more lions about. The wounded lioness redoubled her efforts, with the object, I suppose, of siiinnioning the others to her as sistance. At any rato tney carne, and quickly, too, for within five minutes, peeping through the bushes of our skerm fence, we saw a magnifieent lion bounding along waru us tnrough the tall tamboulin grass that in the moonlight looked for all the world like ripening corn. Ou he carne iu great leaps, and a glorious sight it was to see him. When within fifty yards or so he stood still in an open spaee and roared, and the lioness roared too, and then there carne a third roar, and another great black maned lion stalked majestically up and joined No. 2, and really I began to realize what Jim-Jim must have undergone. '"Now, Harry,' I whispered, 'whatever you do, don't fire- it's too risky. lf they let us be, let them be.' "Well, the pair of them marched off to the bush, where the wounded lioness was now roaring doublé tides, and the whole three of them began to snarl and grumblo away together there. Presently, honever, the lioness ceased roaring and the two lions carne out again, the black maned onefli-st- to prospect I suppose- and walked to where the carcass of tho ox lay and sniffed at it. " 'Oh, what a shot!' whispered Harry, who was tremblmg with excitement. " 'Yes,' I said, 'but dou't flre; they might all of them come for us.' "Harry said nothing, but whether it was trom the natural willfulness of youth, or because he was thrown off his balance by excitement, or from sheer recklessuess, I am surel cannot teil you, never Laving been able to get a satisfactory explanation irom him; but at any rate the fact remains, he, without a word of warning, entirely disregarding my exhortations, lifted up his AVestley Richards and fired at the black manod Uon; and, what a more, hit it slightly on the I flank. "Next second there was a most awful roar from the injured brute. He glared arouud him and roared with ïiain. for he was saiHlv stung; and theu, bef ore I eould make up ray mind what to do, the great black nmned brute, evidently ignorant of the cause of his pain, sprang right at the throat of his eompanion, to whom he evidently attributed his misfortune. It was a curious sight to see the evident astonishment of the other lion at this most unprovoked assault. Over he rolled with an angry roar, and on to him sprang the black maned demon, and commenced to worry him. This finally awoke the yellow maned lion to a sense of the situation, and I am bound to say that he rose to the occasion in a most effective manner. Somehow or other he got to bis feet, and roaring and smarting frightfully closed with his mighty foe. And then ensued a sceno that absolutely baflies description. You know what a shocking thing it is to see two large dogs fighting with abandonment. Well, a whole hundred of dogs could not have looked half so terrible as those two great brutes as they rolled and roared and rent in their rage. It was au awful and a wonderful thing to see the great cats tearing at each other with all the flerce energy of their savage strength, and makiiiir tüe mgút hideous with their heartshakin noise. And the fight was a grand one, too. For some minutes it was imposible to say which was getting the best of it, but at last I saw that the black maned lion, though he was slightly the bigger, was failing. I am inelined to think that the wound in liis flank crippled him. Any way, he began to get the worst of it, which serred him right, as he was the aggressor. Still I could not help feeling sorry for him, for he had fought a gallant fight, when his antagonist flually got himbytho throat, and, struggle and strike out as ho would, began to shake the life out of hun. Over and over they rolled together, [ an awc (napirlng spectacle, but the yellow' boy would not loose his hold, and at length poor black mane grew faint, his breath carne in great snores and seemed to rattle in his I nostrils, then he opened his huge mouth, gave the ghost of a loar, quivered and was I dead. "When he was quite sure that the victory I was his own, the yellow maned lion loosed his grip and sniffed at his faUen foe Then ut) nutra me aeau iions eye, and next, with his fore feet resting on the carcass, sent up bis own chaut of victory, that went rolling and pealing down the dark ways of the night iu all the gathered majesty of sound. And at this point I iuterfered. Tuking a careful I sight at the center of his body, in order to givo the largest possible margin for error, I fired, and sent a .570 express bullet right through hlm, and down he dropped dead upon his mighty foe. "At that, fairly satisfied with our perform anoes, we slept peaeeably till dawn, leaving Fharooh to keep watch in case any moro Iions should take it iuto their heads to come our wuy. " When the sim was fairly up we arose, and very cautiously proceeded- at least Pharaoh and I did, for I would not allow Hairy to come- to see if we could see anything of tho I wounded lioness. She had ceased roaring I immediately on tho arrival of the two lions I and had uot made a sound since; f rom which I we coneluded that she was probably dead. I I was armad ith my express, and Pharaoh, in wnose Hands a rifle was indeed a dangerI ous weapon- to his conipanions- had au ax On our way we stopped to look at the two dead lions. They were niagniíieent animáis, both of them, but their pelts were entirely spoiled by the terrible mauling they had given to eaeh other, which was a sad pity. "In another minute we were following tho blood spoor of tho wounded lioness into the bush, where sho had taken refuge. This, I need hardly say, we did with tho utmost caution; indeed, I for one, did not at all like the job, and was only consoled by the I flection that it was neeessary, and that the I bush was not thick. Wel], we stood there, I ■ Hvviig o luí iivjiu iuu LI ees US possiulo and poking aud peering about, but no liouess I could we see. " 'She must have gono away somewhere to die, Pharaoh,' I said in Zulú. '"Yes, Inkoos' (chief), ho answered, 'sha has certainly gono away.' "Hardly were the words out of his mouth when I heard a most awf ui roar, and looking round saw the lioness emerge from the very center of a bush just behiud Pharaoh, in which sho had been curled up. Up sha went on hur hind legs, and as she did so I ' saw that one of her fore paws was broken. Up she went, towering right over Pharaoh's I head, as she did so lifting her uninjured paw to strike him down. And then, beforo I I couJU get nay rifle round to do anything I to avert the coming eatastrojihe, the Zuk did a very bravo and clever thing. Realizing nis own Imminent daager, he boundeü to one sida, and then, swinging the heavy ax round his head, brought it right domi od her back, eeverlng the vertebra and killing her iustantanoously. It was vonderful te see her collapse all in a heap lik. uu empty sack. " 'My word, Pharaoh,' I s:lid. that was well done, and none too soon.' " 'Yes,' he answered, 'it was a good stroke, Inkoos. Jim-Jim will sleep better now.' "Then, calling Harry to us, we examined the lionera She was old, if one mlgbt judge from her worn teeth, and not very large, but thickly made, and must have possessedestraordinary vitality to have lived so long, shot as she was; for, in addition to her broken shoulder, my expresa bullet hadblmvnagreat hole in hor that one might have put one's fist into. "Well, that is the story of the death oí poor Jim-Jim and how we avenged it, and it is rather intoivsting in its way, Ixause of the flght between the two lions, of which I never saw the like in all mv crivinanra ..„. I knovv something oL lions and their -ay.s." "And how did you get back to Pilgrims' Resti" I asked Hunter Quatermain when he had finished hi.s yarn. "Ah, we had a nice job with that," he answered. "The secoud ox died and so did another, and we had to get on as best we could with tho three rwmriiWng ones haniessed unicorn fashion, while we pushel behind. We did about four miles a day, and it took us nearly a month, during the last week of which wo pretty well starved." "Inotice," Isaid, "that most of your trips ended in disaster of some sort or another, anil yet you went on making thenx, whict strikes ono as a little queer." "Ye, Idarosay; but, then, rememberl got my living for many yeai-s out of hunting. Beddea, half the chai-m of the thing lay in the dangen and disasters, though they were terrible enough at the time. Another thing is, they were not at all disastrous. Some timo, if you like, I will teil you a story of one which was very much tho reverse, for I made L4,000 out of it, and saw one of the most extraordinary sights a hunter ever clapped his eyes on; but ifs too late no w and, besides, I'm tired of talking about my. self. (Jood nilit."