AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



our own larder, but meat for hard-worked men was 

 very desirable. I shot a hartebeeste, made the 

 prearranged signal for men to carry meat, and re- 

 turned to camp. 



Even yet the men were not all in. We took lan- 

 terns and returned along the road; for the long 

 marches under a desert sun are no joke. At last 

 we had accounted for all but two. These we had 

 to abandon. Next day we found their loads, but 

 never laid eyes on them again. Thus early our 

 twenty-nine became twenty-seven. 



About nine o'clock, about as we were turning, in a 

 number of lions began to roar. Usually a lion roars 

 once or twice by way of satisfaction after leaving 

 a kill. These, however, were engaged in driving 

 game, and hence trying to make as much noise as 

 possible. We distinguished plainly seven individuals, 

 perhaps more. The air trembled with the sound as 

 to the deepest tones of a big organ, only the organ 

 is near and enclosed, while these vibrations were 

 in the open air and remote. For a few moments 

 the great salvos would boom across the veldt, roll 

 after roll of thunder; then would ensue a momentary 

 dead silence; then a single voice would open, to be 

 joined immediately by the others. 



We awoke next day to an unexpected cold drizzle. 

 This was a bit uncomfortable, from one point of 



280 



