TRACKS OF LIONS 
43 
line waiting for my orders. Seeing this, down went all the 
villagers’ spears, and the ‘ brozer ’ came forward unarmed 
to speak with me. Eventually I made both ‘ brozers ’ 
shake hands and swear eternal friendship, giving them to 
understand that if they ever brought out their puny little 
army near me again I would blow up their whole village 
with soda-water, which seemed to impress them greatly, 
for they went and fetched me two fat sheep as a peace- 
oifering. 
Next day I went to see how the sick camel was getting 
on, which we had tethered up where it could feed and be 
fed upon by lions. There he was safe, but by no means 
sound, for he was so shaky he could hardly stand. I 
wanted to shoot the poor brute, but my men said that he 
would recover ; so I left him, although I thought another 
two days would see him dead. I left one man to change 
his position, in order that he might get better food, and 
went away. Shortly afterwards this man was to be seen 
tracking us, and when he reached us in breathless haste, 
and with his eyes staring out of his head (or, rather, his eye, 
for he had but one), he related between great gasps that 
he had heard three or four lions roar quite close to him and 
the camel we had just left. To the right-about we went, 
sending off a man for my big ride and another pony. 
When we again reached the camel, we found upwards of 
ten men had already arrived with the rifle, having heard 
the lions roaring from camp. When the other pony 
arrived, we all walked in line seeking for the lion’s spoor, 
but although we spent the whole morning scouring the 
country for miles, we were rewarded with nothing more 
than the sight of old tracks of two lions. The roar 
of a lion often sounds a great deal closer than it really is, 
and in all probability these lions roared several miles off us. 
Coming home, I all but stepped on a snake, which I after- 
wards killed. The men picked from a thorn-bush some 
light-coloured gum, and gave me to eat. It had a very 
pleasant flavour. 
