56 
THE NEW AFRICA 
for Jan to give him a shot. The lion disappeared into the bush 
close by, giving vent to a succession of faint roars, when all 
became still. Jan, concluding from the silence that the beast 
must be dead, cautiously neared the spot, but passed within 
a few feet of where the lion lay wounded, and not by any means 
dead, for the beast sprang upon him from behind with a terrible 
grunt, knocking Jan clean over on to his face, with his loaded 
gun underneath him. At Jan’s shout the dog sprang forward 
and seized the lion by the left ear, but only for a moment, as 
the lion turned and with a stroke of his paw disembowelled the 
faithful beast. However, short as the time was, it enabled Jan 
to place the muzzle of his gun to the lion’s head, and thus end 
the fight. ‘ I felt no fear,' said Jan, ‘ but when it was all over 
I sat and wept like a child, partly from shock, and mostly for 
loss of my “ groot geel hond ” (big yellow dog). The lion’s 
skin I sold for £2, 10s. to buy powder and lead with,’ con¬ 
cluded Jan, and not all our blandishments could get another 
word out of him that evening, as he rolled out his blankets 
and lay down by the fire, thus paying another tribute of regret 
to a faithful friend. Good rugged old Jan, many a cruel storm 
has passed over your bleached head, but left the heart where 
it should be in every man ! 
Breaking up early next day we passed some igneous rock 
on the river bank covered by innumerable guinea-fowl, but 
scorning these as unworthy of a shot, I walked ahead of the 
expedition, and about midday was rewarded by a sight of 
several herds of letzwee buck on the open plain before me, 
dotted about like so many drops of blood on the rolling grass. 
Unfortunately the opportunity offered no cover for stalking, 
and, do my best, four hundred yards was the nearest I could 
get to them. The situation was pressing, a crowd of hungry 
bearers were clamouring for food, and the troop of goats we 
had taken along were only to be eaten in cases of absolute 
necessity, so I chose the alternative, and, after a long guess at 
the distance, finally took a standing shot which fell short. But 
before the surprised game scurried off to their usual retreat— 
