LIONS 29 



heeded them. Men have been carried off while 

 sleeping beside a brightly burning fire, and cattle 

 have been attacked within a circle of camp-fires. 



Heller took care of the colonel's large animals, 

 so whenever an elephant, a hippopotamus, or a 

 rhinoceros was killed he would take his skin- 

 ning tools and enough men to carry his camping 

 outfit and go out to the place and camp until 

 his work was finished. Usually the porters re- 

 turned to the main camp the same day, leaving 

 him alone with his four native assistants. Sev- 

 eral times, while on these trips, lions, attracted 

 by the smell of flesh and blood, paid him visits 

 at night. 



They would circle about his tent grunting, 

 growling, and purring, and if he was camped 

 near the skinned carcass of an animal he could 

 hear them fighting over it all night. But usu- 

 ally there is little danger from a lion that an- 

 nounces itself by grunting or growling. The 

 animals that are dangerous are those that are 

 never seen or heard until after they have 

 snatched a man and made away with him. 



One night two lions came to call on Heller 

 when he was armed with only a shotgun and a 

 few shells of bird shot. He very wisely shut the 



