SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 61 
in the jungle ; but, bewildered and baffled, I envied the instinct 
~ of the so-called brutes, which, careless of their steps, were never- 
4 theless quite sure of their ways. Twilight near the tropics is 
a very short. Just before the sun set, therefore, I followed a 
_ game track which I knew would lead to water, as it was still 
_ early in the season, and the rain supply had not yet dried up 
in the hollows. At dusk I reached a pool similar to the one I 
had quitted in the morning. After a good draught I began 
_ collecting firewood, but for once it was very scarce, and the 
' night closed in so rapidly, that a bare hour’s supply was all my 
4 store. Partly to save fuel, and partly in the hope that as the 
_ night crept on signals would be made from the waggons, I 
_ climbed a tree which stood by the side of the water, and had 
_ not been long perched before I heard, though so far off that I 
could hardly catch the sound, the smothered boom of guns. 
Alarmed at my absence my companions suspected the cause, 
_and were inviting my return ; but it required a very pressing 
inyitation indeed to induce a man to walk through two miles 
_ of an African wood in those days on a dark night. : 
__ This particular spot, too, was more infested with lions than 
j any other, save one, I was ever in ; and, though harmless and 
cowardly enough as a rule in the das. they were not likely to 
_ prove very acceptable followers at night. But I had been walking 
_ all day under a tropical sun, my clothing was wet with per- 
_ Spiration, and it now froze hard—for freeze it can in Southern 
__ Africa—and I was bitterly cold. I determined to come down 
and light my fire. I knew it would last but a short time, 
but thought I would make the best of it, and thaw myself 
before attempting to return. I got to the lowest bough 
of my tree, and had placed my hand beside my feet before 
jumping off, when from the bush immediately under me a 
deep note, and the sound of a heavy body slipping through 
thorny scrub, told me that a lion was_passing.. Whether 
creaking of the tree had roused his attention and caused 
2 to speak so opportunely I don’t know, but without 
warning, in another half-second I should have alighted 
