342 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



that I had really experienced a most extraordinary piece of 

 ill-luck. It was not yet half-past eight, and the first thing I 

 did was to go up to Dr. Edgelow's hut, and take my rifle to 

 pieces. The cap had been untouched by the striker, and I 

 thought at first that the point of the latter was broken, but I 

 found it in perfect order. Finally I discovered that the miss-fire 

 was owing to the safety-bolt having got so loose that it must 

 have shifted up a little when I jerked the rifle rapidly from one 

 opening to another, and thus prevented the striker from coming 

 down on the cap. After fixing the safety-bolt down to full 

 cock I went to my waggon. I felt sure the lion would not now 

 return, if he came back at all, till just before daybreak, when the 

 moon would have set and it would be very dark. 



I was so upset and exasperated by the cruel experience I 

 had met with that I could not lie still or sleep, and so spent 

 the greater part of the night in walking about round my 

 waggon. At last the moon went down, and I then turned in 

 and lay listening, hoping to hear the lion at the carcase, but he 

 did not return, and presently, just as the day was breaking, 

 John brought me the usual early cup of coffee. As I had not 

 slept at all, I told him to see if he could follow the lion's spoor 

 and see in which direction he had gone, and then tried to doze 

 a bit. Presently I got up, when John came up with a broad 

 grin on his face, and said, ' Sir, after the lion went off when 

 your rifle missed fire, he went up to Mr. Johnson's kraal and 

 killed a lot of sheep and goats. One of these he ate in the 

 kraal, and he has taken another away with him. I can see 

 the spoor plainly where he has dragged it along towards the 

 little stream running below Hartley Hills.' 



I felt there was yet a chance, and a good one, of retrieving 

 my evil fortune of the previous evening, and at once had 

 my horse saddled up. The spoor of the lion himself was easy 

 enough to follow in the soft ground at the foot of the hill, and 

 the tracking was made all the easier by the fact that he had 

 dragged the goat alongside of him, holding it, I suppose, by the 

 back of the neck, and trailing its hind-quarters on the ground. 



