198 THE LION KILLER, 



CHAPTER XIII. 



MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN LION HUNTING. 



When an event, either fortunate or unfortunate, happens 

 to an Arab, he says, mectoub, it was so written. 



The reader may judge for himself if the phrase is appli- 

 cable to me. 



One evening after our return to camp, from an unsuc- 

 cessful foray, I had been to visit my horse, as I was always 

 accustomed to do before retiring for the night, and was then 

 slowly walking back and forward on the high rampart that 

 ran near the stables, and overlooking the plain below, medi- 

 tating of the still night, and thinking of my anticipated 

 departure for Oran. 



A group of native spahis were sitting on the edge of the 

 wall, silent and still as the stones of the fort. As I passed 

 near them, one of their number, an officer, and an Arab like 

 the others, took me by the hand, and drawing me towards 

 him motioned me to sit down by the side of the group, which 

 I did, and the same silence continued as before. The full moon 

 that silvered all the landscape, fell on their white burnous 

 and their bronzed faces, and I remarked an expression of sad- 

 ness with them all. As it had been a long time since they had 



