THE LION OF KROU-N^GA. 283 



and Ahmed-Ben-Ali having offered his services, we immediately 

 set out together. Soon the light of the sunset disappeared, 

 and the night became so dark that I could not even see my 

 guide, who was walking two paces ahead of me. 



Having reached a secluded brook all covered with trees, 

 and embowered here and there with trellised vines that fes- 

 tooned the water-oaks that grew by its side, he said to me : 

 This is the' fording-place the lion usually crosses, and he 

 will be here in about an hour, more or less ; but if you 

 have any confidence in me, I would advise you to return to 

 the douar until the rising of the moon, and then we will come 

 to watch for him when he comes back again, after he has 

 made his expedition, or we can hunt him up to-morrow at 

 daylight. 



The forty nights I had spent so unsuccessfully in the open 

 air, were still a sore point with me, and I would not let pass 

 so fair a chance for revenge, so I told my guide that he might 

 return to the camp if he desired it, but that I would remain. 

 Seeing that he had no fancy for going alone, I pointed out to 

 him a thicket a little way behind me, with a very heavy 

 foliage, telling him that he might hide himself there as best 

 he could, which he immediately did, keeping himself as close 

 as a rabbit. 



After having examined the ground I was occupying, partly 

 by my eyes and partly by hand, I sat down on a stone that 

 overlooked the steep sides of the ford, bracing my feet on 

 a root that curved out of the bank. 



Having shut my eyes for some minutes, I was enabled to 

 see, on opening them, that the bank on which I was sitting 

 fell off perpendicularly, caused by the earth having been cut 

 away by the overflow of the brook, and that the ford was a 

 couple of yards below me ; and by the occasional flashes' of 

 foam, I could feel rather than see, the water hurrying down 

 over the rocky bed of the river. 



I had just made these observations, and decided upon firing 



