A TALE OF THREE LIONS
Page: 18

weight of the soaking dew. In two minutes we were wet through up to
the thighs, as wet as though we had waded through water. In due
course, however, we reached the patch of bush, and by the grey light
of the morning cautiously and slowly pushed our way into it. It was
very dark under the trees, for the sun was not yet up, so we walked
with the most extreme care, half expecting every minute to come across
the lioness licking the bones of poor Jim-Jim. But no lioness could we
see, and as for Jim-Jim there was not even a finger-joint of him to be
found. Evidently they had not come here.

"So pushing through the bush we proceeded to hunt every other likely
spot, but with the same result.

"'I suppose she must have taken him right away,' I said at last, sadly
enough. 'At any rate he will be dead by now, so God have mercy on him,
we can't help him. What's to be done now?'

"'I suppose that we had better wash ourselves in the pool, and then go
back and get something to eat. I am filthy,' said Harry.

"This was a practical if a somewhat unfeeling suggestion. At least it
struck me as unfeeling to talk of washing when poor Jim-Jim had been
so recently eaten. However, I did not let my sentiment carry me away,
so we went down to the beautiful spot that I have described, to wash.
I was the first to reach it, which I did by scrambling down the ferny
bank. Then I turned round, and started back with a yell--as well I
might, for almost from beneath my feet there came a most awful snarl.

"I had lit nearly upon the back of the lioness, that had been sleeping
on the slab where we always stood to dry ourselves after bathing. With
a snarl and a growl, before I could do anything, before I could even
cock my rifle, she had bounded right across the crystal pool, and
vanished over the opposite bank. It was all done in an instant, as
quick as thought.

"She had been sleeping on the slab, and oh, horror! what was that
sleeping beside her? It was the red remains of poor Jim-Jim, lying on
a patch of blood-stained rock.

"'Oh! father, father!' shrieked Harry, 'look in the water!'

"I looked. There, floating in the centre of the lovely tranquil pool,