310 THE LION KILLER. 



CHAPTER XX. 



MY FRIEND MOHAMMED-BEN-OUMBARK THE MARAUDER. 



The second personage of this part of the country whom I 

 desire to introduce to the acquaintance of my readers, is 

 Mohammed-ben-Oumbark. 



Like his melodious compeer, he resided on the southern 

 slope of the Mahouna, and in plain English was nothing more 

 or less than a retired robber. 



But such a robber ! He had a well-earned name that will 

 be handed down to future generations undimmed by the touch 

 of years, though, perchance, the only time that his name was 

 ever written, was when it found a place on my pages. 



This was the way we made each other's acquaintance. 



On my second visit to this country I noticed in my explora- 

 tions, a ford where a half dozen paths converged, and think- 

 ing it a probable route for a lion, I had taken my post of 

 observation on the bank, one evening as the night fell on the 

 forest. At about eleven o'clock I heard a foot-fall, on one of 

 the paths that came down to the water's edge. The place 

 was so embowered in trees that scarcely a sunbeam ever 

 touched the earth beneath, during the daytime, and much less 

 likely the feebler rays of the moon at night, and so I relied 

 almost entirely upon my ears to give me information of pass- 

 ing events. 



I was comfortably seated on the root of a tree that grew by 



