CHAPTER XVIII, 



A PICTURESQUE CAMP A TROUBLESOME LION. 



THE trail of the waggons, which we had struck 

 about half an hour previously, now trended around 

 the base of a large and well-wooded kopje, two 

 smaller ones being opposed to it. On entering this 

 defile, I distinctly heard two heavy shots, and from 

 the sound rumbling along the ground, and the heavy, 

 dull echoes that followed, they were recognized by 

 all as signals being fired from a large-bore gun, with 

 its barrel depressed towards the ground. These 

 shots were repeated several times, and their increased 

 loudness told that we could not be far distant from 

 those who fired them ; but we were scarcely pre- 

 pared to believe that we were as near camp as we 

 actually were. Suddenly rounding a spur of rocky 

 ground running out into the veldt, we found our- 

 selves within a couple of hundred yards of the 

 bivouac selected by my people. The situation was 

 a most charming one, being upon an indentation 



