250 THE LION KILLER. 



Midnight came, but no lion, and having heard the dogs 

 and men making a great uproar in the plain, we descended 

 the hill to find out the cause. Just as we reached the edge 

 of the woods, two or three guns fired, and we heard the balls 

 whistling past us. They came from the guards who were 

 watching the pits were the Arabs stored their grain. These 

 men had taken us for thieves coming out of the woods to 

 rob them. In a moment more and the guns were answered 

 from douar to douar, all along the hills, as though to prove 

 that the occupants were keeping good watch, and never slept 

 at all during the night. 



The night passed away like the others, without any success, 

 and the next day, instead of sleeping as usual, I returned to 

 camp, where my first thought was to obtain another leave of 

 absence. This was granted with a good deal of hesitation, 

 as my visit to the country had been without any success 

 whatever. After a rest of two or three days, I left the camp 

 with Bou-Aziz for another trial. 



As we passed by douar after douar, the people came run- 

 ning out, praying us to halt for a little, while they should tell 

 us of the misdeeds that the lion had committed since I had 

 been in camp. If they were to be believed, we had nothing 

 to do but to go out in the evening and meet the enemy, for 

 only the evening before he had roared at sunset, and had 

 come to drink at the brook were the women were bathing 

 at a gun-shot from the douar. 



At sundown we reached the douar where he had been seen, 

 but the darkness came without any sound of his approach. 

 Bou-Aziz, now full of confidence in me, said : " Decidedly 

 God is with you, for you silence the lion at your coining, and 

 you will certainly kill him at your first meeting." I would 

 have preferred the incredulity of our first acquaintance to 

 such blind assurance. 



The whole of the first night was devoted to following the 

 mountain paths without any success. Early in the morning 



