74 THE LION KILLER. 



the last syllables ; but I divined bis meaning and could not 

 prevent myself from laughing outright. 



A few moments and the Shiek had disappeared down the 

 mountain path with his followers, and I was left alone by the 

 side of the lions tracks, and in front of the mysterious lair 

 which was already enveloped in the shades of night, and my 

 eye ran along the different trails and endeavored to count the 

 foot-marks imbedded in the sand, and my fancy pictured the 

 seignor with the big head with his wife and family reposing 

 on his couch in the jungle above, and measured the strength 

 of my single arm with their united might. 



The Mahouna gorge in which I was lying, is at once the 

 most picturesque and the most savage of the African defiles. 

 Fancy two high mountains running up to a sharp peak with 

 their sides wrinkled by deep ravines, and shadowed by impene- 

 trable forests of cork trees, wild olives and mastics. Between 

 these mountains flows the brook of Ouled Cherf, a roaring 

 torrent in winter, but in the torrid summer exposing its 

 gravelly bed cut up by the paths of animals of every kind, 

 that come thither to drink or bathe. 



In looking at this valley from a distance it would appear 

 to be inhabitable, and indeed there are found some families, 

 who, when menaced on the plain, have taken refuge in this 

 spot, as the only retreat against their foes, and a place to 

 which they could never be followed. In spite of the ravages 

 made by the lion in their families, they have never thought 

 of emigrating, and when they take their annual count of their 

 stock, they say so much for the lion, so much for the 

 government, and so much for ourselves, and the share of the 



