118 WAR: A SCOUTS' PATROL 



in some long river grass close to his camp, returned 

 and sent his boys after it. Presently his boys 

 came back saying that the buck was not to be 

 found or had disappeared. After having a drink 

 of tea, and cursing them for their stupidity, he 

 took his boys down to show them where the dead 

 buck was lying ; but, true enough, when he reached 

 there, the buck had disappeared, and had evidently 

 been dragged off by a lion. They followed the 

 spoor, made in the grass by the buck being dragged 

 along, for about forty yards, and then came right 

 on to a big lion at fairly close quarters. Johnson 

 fired straight at him, but the lion bounded off into 

 the reeds apparently unhurt. On looking closer, 

 however, at the place where he had disappeared, 

 a few small drops of blood were visible, which 

 showed that the lion had, at least, been touched. 

 Johnson decided to go back to his camp and get 

 his heavy rifle, a -500 black powder gun with a 

 solid lead bullet. (We had one ourselves in the 

 camp, and a very hard hitting old rifle it was.) 

 Then, picking up all his boys, about eight or ten, 

 he went down to see if he could get another shot 

 at the rascal who had tried to steal his meat. 

 To his surprise, however, even in the short time 

 that he had been away, the lion had come back 

 and had dragged the reedbuck farther out of 

 sight. 



Cautiously following up the track, Johnson, for 

 the second time, came right on to the lion, now 

 feeding and tearing hungrily at the meat. The 



