LION-TRAP 
317 
About three miles from camp that same afternoon the lions 
killed another ox on the open short grass bordering the river, 
flanked by a scrub-grown bank, twelve feet high, about twelve 
yards from the waters edge. This was coming it rather strong. 
With better care, I again set the four-ounce gun loaded with a 
furious charge of looped—swan-shot, backed by twelve drams 
of the best powder. Round the carcass I built a strong hedge 
of thorny mimosa branches, leaving a narrow opening, covered 
by the muzzle of the gun, across which a string was tightly 
drawn, and fixed to a lever acting upon the trigger of the gun 
in such a manner that any agitation of the string would set 
the gun off. In the evening, at nine o’clock, while we were 
‘ talking lions,’ the boom of the gun announced that something 
had happened. All of us were agog preparing our guns to steal 
a march on to the spot at daybreak, in hopes of finding some 
lions still feeding on the carcass in the early dawn, and to get 
the skin of the lion, probably killed or wounded by the shot. 
Before daylight I was up to awake the others, who all refused to 
go as it was still dark. Stremboom actually foiled me of get¬ 
ting his double 8-bore, the most serviceable weapon for close 
quarters, by refusing to even open his door when I knocked, 
fearing I would turn him out of his comfortable bed to go on a 
wild-goose chase in the dark. Thus I was obliged to fall back 
on my Swinburne-Henry. Stremboom, however, gave me per¬ 
mission to use some horses, standing in a kraal close by, which 
he had charge of for the king. Awakening the coloured man, 
Marteens, one of the right sort, who lived at Stremboom’s 
factory, we took two horses, and rode off towards the spot 
where the trap was set. Going along in the dark, I mistook 
the particular river bend where the gun was set, and dis¬ 
mounted much closer than I intended to, thinking all the while 
to be some three hundred yards off while I was within less than 
a hundred yards from where the lions actually were. Telling 
Marteens to look after the horses and on no account to mind 
me, I stole cautiously along the edge of the scrub, looking 
intently ahead in the growing light for any objects moving in 
