302 LION-HUNTING AND LIONS 



carried off the last remaining one and threw it for safety 

 on the waggon where he himself slept. As the dawn was 

 not now very far off, he lit a candle and took up his 

 book. 



Not an hour later he was aroused by a great rattling 

 in the direction of a large packing case outside the camp, 

 where some tools had been left lying. He sprang up, 

 with Norris after him, and in the dim light he saw the 

 white case being shoved about, though it was still too 

 dark for him to make out the lion. However, Selous 

 aimed straight at the case, and absolute quiet followed 

 his shot ; but only for a moment, then the case began to 

 move more wildly than ever, till a second shot caused its 

 dancing to cease. 



Everybody felt by this time that they never wished to 

 see a lion again, and dogs and men alike stretched them- 

 selves out wearily. But it was barely half an hour later 

 when all the noises began afresh, and the waggon itself 

 was shaken. The lion had positively returned to the 

 charge, and not finding any more new antelope skins on 

 the ground had been obliged to put up with an old one, 

 which was hanging to dry on a platform between two 

 poles. When he got on to that platform, which he pro- 

 bably did with a spring, he was within six feet of Norris 

 and another boy. 



Except for the sound of the lions crunching the leg 

 bones of the antelopes (which had been left in the skins) 

 in the open ground by the river, nothing further happened 

 that night. With the first streaks of dawn Selous got up 

 and peered about him ; in the faint light he made out 

 something which he took to be an ant-heap, but it turned 

 out to be a lion, and nearer the river was the lioness and 

 two or three little dots of cubs. 



Thinking that they had gone to drink, and would soon 

 be seen climbing up the steep bank which overhung the 

 stream, Selous crept after them in order to get a better 

 shot. But when he reached the place where they had 



