The herd-boys had seen spoor in the afternoon ; at 

 dusk we heard the distant roaring, and later on, the 

 nearer and more ominous grunting. I fastened Jock 

 up in the tent waggon lest the sight of him should 

 prove too tempting ; he was bristling like a hedgehog 

 and constantly working out beyond the cattle, glaring 

 and growling incessantly towards the bush. We had 

 four big fires at the four corners of the outspan, and 

 no doubt this saved a bad stampede, for in the morning 

 we found a circle of spoor where the lions had walked 

 round and round the outspan. There were scores of 

 footprints the tracks of at least four or five animals. 

 In the Bushveld the oxen were invariably tied up 

 at night, picketed to the trek-chain, each pair at its 

 yoke ready to be inspanned for the early morning trek. 

 Ordinarily the weight of the chain and yokes was 

 sufficient to keep them in place, but when there were 

 lions about, and the cattle liable to be scared and all 

 to sway off together in the same direction, we took the 

 extra precaution of pegging down the chain and anchor- 

 ing the front yoke to a tree or stake. We had a lot 

 of trouble that night, as one of the lions persistently 

 took his stand to windward of the cattle to scare them 

 with his scent. We knew well enough when he was 

 there, although unable to see anything, as all the oxen 

 would face up-wind, staring with bulging eye-balls 

 in that direction and braced up tense with excitement. 

 If one of them made a sudden move, the whole lot 

 jumped in response and swayed off down wind 

 from the danger, dragging the gear with them 

 and straining until the heavy 

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