192 LAEGE GAME. CHAP. iv. 



it might be. In truth, at that moment it was fully forty 

 miles away from the spot where we were standing, and, 

 though we did not know it at the time, that was to be 

 our last opportunity of obtaining food for upwards of 

 twenty-four hours. On examining the footprints of the 

 animal, the great size of which showed that they were 

 those of an old bull, we found that they had been made 

 by it on the day previous, and we then followed them till 

 near nightfall. It was evidently on a journey and bent 

 upon reaching some particular place, keeping straight on 

 in a bee-line without feeding or halting, and we had very 

 little doubt but that we should find it hi one of the great 

 reed bottoms on the banks of the river Sutu. We 

 stopped to camp rather earlier than usual, to enable us 

 to try and get some meat, but we all returned at dark 

 empty-handed to make the most of a duiker's shoulder, 

 which, among so many hungry men, any one of whom 

 could easily have finished it, was not more than a mouth- 

 ful apiece. 



To make things worse it came on a bad night, as 

 indeed it had threatened all day, with a strong gale blow- 

 ing, and sufficiently heavy showers to wet me through, 

 and then towards midnight, as I was sitting by the fire 

 with the blanket over my head, miserably attempting to 

 smoke, a lion began to roar about a mile off. He was 

 answered by another from an equal distance on the oppo- 

 site side of us, and then, alternately roaring, they came 

 nearer and nearer, until their voices sounded so close out 

 of the darkness, that we were forced to rouse up and 

 mend our fire, and coax it, despite the rain, into a decent 

 flame. The lions, having once discovered us, were in no 



