90 
THE NEW AFRICA 
the wind in the right quarter heading us, we felt pretty sanguine 
of success. We had put on dark grey clothes, not showing a 
vestige of white, and our faces, by this time tanned to the colour 
of mahogany from constant exposure, would not betray our 
whereabouts. Creeping slowly from bush to bush, we at last 
made out some huge moving objects in the distance, no doubt 
sea-cows grazing! Jan whispered to me not to be in a hurry, as 
the night was long, and on no account to fire at anything over 
twenty yards, a thing I was not likely to do in any case, having 
learnt this business from previous experience. So biding our 
time when the sea-cows were out of view behind the bushes as 
they moved about, we crawled in successive stages till we got 
within about eighty yards of an unsuspicious bull who was 
grazing further out than the rest. With due luck he would 
stray our way, and by a careful crawl on the flat of our stomachs 
we hoped to get within range if he by fortune should not get 
our wind. We were silently making for the last little bush 
intervening between the hippo and ourselves, and had almost 
reached its friendly shelter, when Jan, who was crawling behind, 
jumped up with, 4 Doctor, there is a lion on us ! ’ Mystified for a 
second, as my thoughts at the moment were concentrated on the 
hippo, I also rose, muttering something uncomplimentary to 
lions in general, and this one in particular, while the frightened 
troop of hippo, over fifteen in number, made off with a great rush 
for the reeds, through which they splashed, grunting, into the 
river. ‘ Where is the lion ? ’ I asked, looking about in great 
annoyance; 4 1 see nothing.’— 4 Don’t you see that black thing 
like an ant-heap there?’ said Jan, pointing to a dark object 
about fifty yards off. 4 Well, that has been moving with us 
every time we moved, and stopping when we stopped. I have 
been watching it for some time, hoping we would get within 
shot of the sea-cows first, but I shouted because it suddenly 
came swiftly towards us in a straight line, and I couldn’t stand 
it any longer.’ We watched the beast keenly, intentionally 
standing some five yards apart ourselves, in case it came at one of 
us, so that the other could get a side shot; and with the enor- 
