FIRING THE BUSH FOR A LION 
195 
the night. Two of these voracious animals charged the 
sheep together. However, my shikari kept awake, for a 
wonder, and stabbed one with his spear, and prevented the 
other one getting a proper hold of the sheep. 
When I had stayed there another night with no better 
result, two of my men galloped into my camp from my 
main body in a state of great excitement. They brought 
the news that the man-eater, who evidently was having 
a game of hide-and-seek with me, had taken a sixteen-year- 
old boy from the village close to my main camp, and had 
made off with him into the jungle. Swallowing a cup of 
chocolate, I was soon in the saddle, and galloped hard 
the ten miles which separated us from the main caravan. 
After going about eight miles, my second shikari’s pony fell 
heavily, and man and rifle felt the sand, but luckily neither 
was hurt. On arrival in camp, my headman showed me 
where the cheeky lion had actually slept inside the little 
zareba I had built and slept in myself a few nights before. 
When all was quiet, he had crawled out and through the 
village zareba (his hair being plainly visible on a sharp 
stick in it), taken up the boy, and vanished into the jungle. 
We at once took up the spoor, which led into the very 
worst thorn and grass jungle imaginable. There were a 
few spots of blood along the track, but as hyaenas were 
following him, we found no remains of the boy. After 
passing over some stony ground, where the track became 
almost invisible, we tracked him into an impenetrable 
jungle, out of which he did not appear to have moved. 
I and my shikaris took up our places to windward of this 
spot, some hundred yards square, whilst my gunbearers fired 
the grass. After a long pause, a dense cloud of smoke 
became visible, and soon after the roar of the flames could 
be heard, as they leaped over the branches of thorn-bush 
and high, dense grass. On and on came the fire, fanned by 
a strong wind. The smuts filled my eyes, and the volumes 
of smoke darkened even the sun. The roar of the flames 
became louder, and the heat almost unbearable. A hare, 
13—2 
