52 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



or the lions would leave their retreat and start 

 out foraging before we arrived. 



For eight miles that half-naked young savage, 

 with a spear in one hand, piloted us on a swift 

 trot over the plains without the slightest sign 

 of fatigue. Then his actions showed that we 

 were approaching the dangerous spot. 



The sun had sunk low; in half an hour it 

 would drop behind the rocky hills on the border 

 of German East Africa. In the far distance I 

 caught sight of an animal that I took to be a 

 lion. As I thought it was one of those we were 

 after that had left its lair, I dismounted and, 

 after telling the boys to wait with my horse, 

 advanced on foot. 



The country seemed alive with game. A 

 wart-hog with a litter of pigs appeared not 

 twenty yards away; bands of topi, hartebeests, 

 wildebeests, Thomson's gazelle, Grant's gazelle, 

 and zebras fed quietly or stared at me from 

 all sides ; and quarter of a mile away was a mam- 

 moth eland bull. I kept on until I was close 

 enough to see that the animal I was following 

 was not one of the lions, then I went back to 

 where the boys were waiting. 



I found them clustered about a thorn-tree in 



