A TALE OF THREE LIONS
Page: 15

in another minute, oxen, cart, trektow, reims, broken disselboom, and
everything were soon tied in one vast heaving, plunging, bellowing,
and seemingly inextricable knot.

"For a moment or two this state of affairs took my attention off from
the lion that had caused it, but whilst I was wondering what on earth
was to be done next, and how we should manage if the cattle broke
loose into the bush and were lost--for cattle frightened in this
manner will so straight away like mad things--my thoughts were
suddenly recalled to the lion in a very painful fashion.

"For at that moment I perceived by the light of the fire a kind of
gleam of yellow travelling through the air towards us.

"'The lion! the lion!' holloaed Pharaoh, and as he did so, he, or
rather she, for it was a great gaunt lioness, half wild no doubt with
hunger, lit right in the middle of the skerm, and stood there in the
smoky gloom lashing her tail and roaring. I seized my rifle and fired
it at her, but what between the confusion, my agitation, and the
uncertain light, I missed her, and nearly shot Pharaoh. The flash of
the rifle, however, threw the whole scene into strong relief, and a
wild sight it was I can tell you--with the seething mass of oxen
twisted all round the cart, in such a fashion that their heads looked
as though they were growing out of their rumps; and their horns seemed
to protrude from their backs; the smoking fire with just a blaze in
the heart of the smoke; Jim-Jim in the foreground, where the oxen had
thrown him in their wild rush, stretched out there in terror, and then
as a centre to the picture the great gaunt lioness glaring round with
hungry yellow eyes, roaring and whining as she made up her mind what
to do.

"It did not take her long, however, just the time that it takes a
flash to die into darkness, for, before I could fire again or do
anything, with a most fiendish snort she sprang upon poor Jim-Jim.

"I heard the unfortunate lad shriek, and then almost instantly I saw
his legs thrown into the air. The lioness had seized him by the neck,
and with a sudden jerk thrown his body over her back so that his legs