THE LION IN SOUTH AFRICA 339 



before daylight I never got a shot at them at all. This time, 

 as I thought it possible that the lion might not come back until 

 after the moon had set, when it would be intensely dark, I was 

 determined to be as close to him as possible. There being 

 only one lion to deal with, I was not much afraid of his inter- 

 fering with me, at any rate before he was fired at, and so made 

 my shelter as small as possible in order that it should not 

 attract his attention. We first chopped a few straight poles, 

 and leant them together at the back of the tree, and then covered 

 them with some leafy branches. 



That evening I had dinner with Dr. Edgelow, and about 

 half-past seven, just as night was closing in, took my rifle and 

 blankets and crawled into my shelter, in which I had only just 

 room to sit upright. John then closed the entrance behind me, 

 and I prepared for a long vigil. As the moon was now within 

 two nights of the full, it would have been a lovely moonlight 

 night had it not been that the sky was overcast with clouds ; 

 but these clouds were light and fleecy, so that the moon gave a 

 strong light through them. Looking through the side of my 

 leafy shelter, I could very distinctly see John and the two Kafir 

 boys sitting by their fire at the side of the waggon, as well as 

 the head of my old horse, which was tied to the forewheel on 

 the further side ; my oxen, too, I could clearly distinguish, so 

 clearly indeed, that I could make out their colours, and see 

 the raw-hide thongs with which they were tied to the yokes. 

 Some were standing up, and every now and again one of these 

 would move about and rattle the iron trek-chain as he did so, 

 but the greater part of them were lying down chewing the cud 

 contentedly, after a good day's feed. Besides my waggon, I 

 could see, too, all the huts on the hill-side within Mr. Graham's 

 compound, and hear the Kafir workboys talking and laughing 

 noisily, as is their wont while sitting round the camp fire of an 

 evening. 



As the shooting-hole between the diverging branches of 

 the tree behind which I sat only allowed me to get a view 

 directly over the carcase of the ox, I arranged another opening 



z 2 



