TREKKING THROUGH THE THIRST 199 



queer bark or neigh. It continued its course past the rhino, 

 and started a new train of ideas in the latter's muddled rep- 

 tilian brain; round it wheeled, gazed after the zebra, and 

 then evidently concluded that everything was normal, for 

 it lay down to sleep. 



On we went, past a wildebeest herd lying down; at 

 a distance they looked exactly like bison as they used to 

 lie out on the prairie in the old days. We halted for an 

 hour and a half to rest the men and horses, and took our 

 lunch under a thick-trunked olive-tree that must have been 

 a couple of centuries old. Again we went on, ever scanning 

 through the glasses every distant object which we thought 

 might possibly be a lion, and ever being disappointed. A 

 serval cat jumped up ahead of us in the tall grass, but I 

 missed it. Then, trotting on foot, I got ahead of two wart- 

 hog boars, and killed the biggest; making a bad initial 

 miss and then emptying my magazine at it as it ran. 

 We sent it in to camp, and went on, following a donga, 

 or small watercourse, fringed with big acacias. The after- 

 noon was wearing away, and it was time for lions to be 

 abroad. 



The sun was near the horizon when Tarlton thought he 

 saw something tawny in the watercourse ahead of us, be- 

 hind a grassy ant-hill, toward which we walked after dis- 

 mounting. Some buck were grazing peacefully beyond it, 

 and for a moment we supposed that this was what he had 

 seen. But as we stood, one of the porters behind called 

 out "Simba"; and we caught a glimpse of a big lioness 

 galloping down beside the trees, just beyond the donga; 

 she was out of sight in an instant. Mounting our horses, 

 we crossed the donga; she was not to be seen, and we 

 loped at a smart pace parallel with the line of trees, hoping 

 to see her in the open. But, as it turned out, as soon as 

 she saw us pass, she crouched in the bed of the donga; we 

 had gone by her a quarter of a mile when a shout from one 

 of our followers announced that he had seen her, and back 

 we galloped, threw ourselves from our horses, and walked 



