26o A Breath from the Veldt 



no rest for several days previously. Even his loud snoring was good to hear. 

 But for some reason or other sleep refused to come my way. I just lay on my 

 side, thinking over events, and listening to Prince and Office talking by the fire, 

 till they too fell asleep. It was one of those nights when the air seems charged 

 with a perfectly inky darkness, such as no one can understand unless he has been 

 in Africa or some similar clime. Everything was deadly still save the occasional 

 stamping of Brenke, or the cry of some night bird, when, about midnightj a 

 lion roared splendidly quite near to us. Prince heard it too and was sitting up, 

 so I told him to pile some more logs on the fire ; and as he was doing this 

 Brenke, who was tied to the waggon, snorted loudly and began to strain at his 

 riem. There could only be one conclusion, namely, that the lion was close to 

 us and the pony had seen it. Jumping up at once, I noticed that the two of the 

 donkeys in our team (Mrs. Langtry and Gladstone) were tied to a small tree at 

 the end of the disselboom ; and thinking that these were a bit too far away 

 from the fire to be safe, I said to Prince we must move them closer in. Hardly 

 were the words out of my mouth when there was a sudden uproar amongst the 

 donkeys beside us (they were barely five yards from the spot where Prince and 

 I were lying) and on glancing up we had just time to see one of them turn com- 

 pletely over. The flickering light of the fire shone only on the quarters of the 

 animal, leaving the rest in darkness, and for the life of us we could not see what 

 it was that had upset him. But that was only for a moment. Prince seized a 

 burning brand from the fire, and began yelling "De lieuw, ow baas," addressing 

 himself alternately to Van Staden and me, and I must say it was a moment of 

 intense excitement. We knew instinctively that the lion had killed the donkey, 

 and was standing over him ; but it was hopeless to fire until we could see some- 

 thing, or at least make certain as to his whereabouts. And now, as bad luck 

 would have it, Mrs. Langtry and her foal managed to smash their riems and 

 break away in terror from the tree to which they were tied. They must have 

 galloped almost over the lion as he stood by the donkey he had killed, and so 

 have roused a further desire for blood. All this was the work of only one or 

 two seconds. In another moment we heard the lion chasing first one donkey 

 and then the other, and one of them having fled for refuge into the big mealie 

 patch, about thirty yards away, we distinctly heard every movement of pursuer 

 and pursued as they rushed through the stalks. At every bound he emitted a 

 subdued "boo-uflf" as his forelegs struck the ground, and then came a loud 

 scuffle, a crack, and the sound of a heavy body falling, after which all was still. 

 But only for a moment. The lion evidently found the other loose donkey. 



