210 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



We waited twenty minutes to make sure they 

 were not going to move. Then, leaving all our 

 men except the gunbearers under the tree, we 

 slipped back until out of sight, and began to 

 execute our flank movement. The chances 

 seemed good. The jumble of boulders was sur- 

 rounded by open country, and it was improb- 

 able the lions could leave it without being seen. 

 We had arranged with our men a system of 

 signals. 



For two hours we walked very hard in order to 

 circle out of sight, down wind, and to gain the 

 other side of the ridge back of the lions. We 

 purposed slipping over the ridge and attacking 

 from above. Even this was but a slight advan- 

 tage. The job was a stiff one, for we might ex- 

 pect certainly the majority to charge. 



Therefore, when we finally deployed in skirmish 

 order and bore down on that patch of brush and 

 boulders, we were braced for the shock of battle. 

 We found nothing. Our men, however, signalled 

 that the lions had not left cover. After a little 

 search, however, we discovered a very shallow 

 depression running slantwise up the hill and back 

 of the cover. So slight it was that even the 

 glasses had failed to show it from below. The 

 lions had in all probability known about us from 



