ii6 Wild Beasts 



reached a certain part of the heavens (till about ten o'clock), 

 he would join me. 



" I had already had breakfast when this news came, and 

 to save time I took a hunter and a spoorer (tracker) with 

 me and followed the lion. About two hundred yards off 

 we found the spot where he had made his disgusting meal, 

 and then the track led right away towards a stream, nearly 

 a mile distant, where he had quenched his thirst. Keep- 

 ing steadily on, he passed through several covers quite 

 strong enough to have held him, and through which we 

 had to pass with the utmost caution, until, at length, he 

 came out on to the open, and headed in a direction that 

 we knew could lead nowhere but to the Umbeka bush, the 

 thickest jungle for miles around. As this was still nearly 

 four miles off, I sent one man back to tell the people 

 where to come to, and kept on with the hunter. 



" On reaching the jungle, which covered the entire side 

 of a hill, and was stony and broken to the last degree, 

 besides having its undergrowth formed of impenetrable 

 cactus, we did not of course attempt to enter, but separating, 

 walked round it, the upper and more rugged portion falling 

 to my share, and carefully examined every inch of the 

 ground to see whether by any chance he had again left it ; 

 however, no vestige of his spoor could be seen, and by the 

 time we got back to our starting-point, the whole of 

 Tekwane's people were in sight. 



"The chief himself was with them, though he had no 

 intention of taking any active part in the proceedings, and 

 when we started he retired with some of his old men to a 

 place of safety, and a council of how to proceed was held 



