310 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



made that the party of our countrymen should pay the 

 hunters' camp a visit in the course of a day or two. 

 However, days elapsed, and they did not come, thus their 

 intended host got uneasy, and resolved to seek them 

 out, and learn what was the cause of their not keeping 

 their promise. On arrival at their camping-place he 

 found them outspanned in the centre of a most formidable 

 kraal they had erected, but no oxen or horses within 

 sight. On hailing his friends, and entering into conver- 

 sation with them, he learned that a day or two previously 

 the lions had driven all their cattle off, and that even 

 now an old mannikin was watching them, thus preventing 

 their going out, even in search of their beasts. 



Says the hunter, " You would not let a confounded 

 lion keep you prisoned up, surely ? " 



" But he's an enormous brute." 



"He is, is he; and where can he be found?'' 

 inquired the visitor. 



" Oh, behind that bush ; there, that one about a 

 hundred yards off. You cannot see him now, but he's 

 there, and has been there since the cattle were driven off," 

 was the answer. 



The hunter simply exclaimed, " I'll soon make him 

 quit," and walked out of the kraal straight up to the 

 bush in question. Behind it was a fine old lion asleep, but 

 who got roused up by the intruder's approach, and before 

 the poor beast could do his yawning, stretching, and 

 taking the kinks out of his back, he was bowled over 

 with a two-ounce bullet through the head. The best 

 hunter in South Africa, in his time, was the narrator 

 of this deed. 



It has become popular to doubt the performances of 

 Gordon Gumming. Lots of stick-in-the-mud, stay-at- 



