114 Wild Beasts 



towards midnight by a heavy thunderstorm, which crashed 

 round us for half an hour or more. At last the hush came 

 that always accompanies the tremendous rain which fol- 

 lows, and seems to quench such storms, broken only by 

 the heavy splashing of big drops, and the gurgle of the 

 water that flooded the ground, and I should soon have 

 been asleep again had not a drop come splash into my face 

 through the ill-thatched roof, almost immediately followed 

 by a small stream, of which it had been the advanced 

 guard. This necessitated my looking out for a drier spot, 

 when suddenly out of the quiet of the descending rain, 

 came such a confused clamor of shrieks and cries, of yell- 

 ing and moaning, that until I heard the voice of the lion, 

 I was utterly unable to account for it. This lasted for full 

 half a minute, and then such a blood-curdling scream of 

 mingled pain and despair came as I hope I may never hear 

 again, and which haunted my dreams for many a month 

 after. 



" My men, and among them two old hunters, each of 

 whom had killed several lions, shrunk crouching back to the 

 further end of the hut, returning no answer to my words 

 when I told them to come out with me and face the beast, 

 though, as I opened the hut entrance, and looked out on 

 the pitch darkness, it was evident how useless any such 

 attempt would be. The death-yell we had heard was fol- 

 lowed by silence for some time, during which the brute 

 was probably departing with its victim, and the natives 

 were still afraid of its return ; then the usual noisy lamen- 

 tations for the dead broke forth, and were continued with- 

 out intermission until daylight, though I was so tired that, 



