WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



in densest darkness. I cannot distinguish anything, 

 neither the bull nor the lion, but my keen hearing dis- 

 cerns the snarl and growl of two lions. Another one, 

 no doubt, has approached the bull from the farther 

 side. I hear them tearing the flesh and crunching the 

 bones of their prey. The yelling and laughing of the 

 monkeys in the tree-tops sound like mockery. 



To shoot in the darkness would be senseless. Noth- 

 ing disturbs the lions at their meal. 



At last the light of the moon breaks through the 

 clouds and afl:ords me the longed-for opportunity of 

 placing a shot. But it is, unfortunately, not a telling 

 shot, though I may have wounded one of the lions. At 

 all events they have escaped and are lost to me. To 

 be sure, three days later, my men found the skeleton of 

 a lioness whose flesh had been devoured by hyenas and 

 vultures. 



Morning dawns and I return to my camp, tired out 

 after this sleepless night, bitten all over by mosquitoes. 

 The next two days I spent in bed with an attack of 

 malaria. However attractive such a stand in night- 

 time may be, from the point of view of an observer of 

 animal life, the true sportsman does not like to kill from 

 a safe retreat, but prefers the more exciting and more 

 perilous method of stalking his game and of facing danger. 



Often, too, he catches nothing but a spell of the 

 treacherous malarial fever, as I did on my stand at 

 night, which I have just described. 



368 



