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| LATER VISITS TO SOUTH AFRICA 127 
= turned in, when about midnight we were awakened sud- 
_ denly bya tremendous noise, higher up stream, coming towards 
us. Crashing trees and a general rushing were the only sounds 
we at first heard, but presently the screams and trumpetings of — 
panic-stricken elephants mingled in the din. The herd came 
_ tearing and-breaking its way through the dense jungle straight 
for us ; luckily they caught sight of the gleam of the fires and 
_ made a sharp bend to the left, but the outsiders were within 
a few yards of my waggon. On they passed into the darkness, 
and in five minutes all was again still. By coaxing and 
_ speaking to the horses, which were as usual tied two and two 
to the waggon-wheels, we calmed them down ; but every ox 
had broken his tethering riem, for, as luck sear" have it, they 
were fastened to the trek-tow. The two teams with all the 
: _ spare beasts had vanished no one knew whither, and five hours 
must pass before we could do anything to find out. 
Making the best of it I turned in again, and did not wake 
until the sun rose, when John, putting his head into the 
_ Waggon, told me the oxen were on the flat, with a lion 
after them. I was up in a moment, and unslinging a gun 
from the side of the waggon tent, went in hot pursuit. 
Interrupted in his pastime, the would-be cattle-lifter turned 
quickly to bay, and as he gave me a fine open front shot at 
fifty yards, I fired for his chest ; but I had been after elephants 
the day before, and the heavy charges were still in the barrels. 
For accuracy at the distance I had too much powder by half, and 
the gun threw up, the ball striking his neck, and down he came 
on me with a grunting bark. I waited till he was within twenty 
_yards and fired the second barrel, but it was a poor shot, the 
gun kicking violently, and it struck the upper part of the near 
foreleg. Two more bounds, snap went the bone, and pitching 
heavily forward he lay six yards from me. I had run out ina 
hurry, and had neither powder nor ball. John and another 
‘man stood a short distance off. Keeping my full front to the 
lion and never taking my eyes off for a moment—a compliment 
he returned in kind—in an undertone I told one of the men to 
