After this I again kept as still as I could, though trembling with excitement; and in a short while I heard the lion begin to creep stealthily towards me. I could barely make out his form as he crouched among the whitish undergrowth; but I saw enough for my purpose, and before he could come any nearer. I took careful aim and pulled the trigger. The sound of the shot was at once followed by a most terrific roar, and then I could hear him leaping about in all directions. I was no longer able to see him, however, as his first bound had taken him into the thick bush; but, to make assurance doubly sure, I kept blazing away in the direction in which I heard him plunging about. At length came a series of mighty groans. gradually subsiding into deep sighs, and finally ceasing altogether; and I felt convinced that one of the "devils" that had so long harried us would trouble us no more.
As soon as I ceased firing, a tumult of inquiring voices was borne across the dark jungle from the men in camp about a quarter of a mile away. I shouted back that I was safe and sound, and that one of the lions was dead; whereupon such a mighty cheer went up from all the camps as must have astonished the denizens of the jungle for miles around. Shortly after I saw scores of lights twinkling through thebushes; every man in camp turned out, and with tom-toms beating and horns blowing came running to the scene. They surrounded my eyrie, and to my amazement prostrated themselves on the ground before me, saluting me with cries of "Mabarak! Mabarak!" which, I believe, means " blessed one" or "saviour."All the same, I refused to allow any search to be made that night for the body of the lion, in case his companion might be close by; besides, it was possible that he might be still alive, and capable of making a last spring. Accordingly we all returned in triumph to the camp, where great rejoicings were kept up for the remainder of the night, the Swahili and other African natives celebrating the occasion by an especially wild and savage dance.
For my part, I anxiously awaited the dawn; and even before it was thoroughly light I was on my way to the eventful spot, as I could not completely persuade myself that even yet the "devil" might not have eluded me in some uncanny and mysterious way. Happily my fears proved groundless, and I was relieved to find that my luck-after playing me so many exasperating tricks-had really turned at last. On rounding a bush, I was startled to see a huge lion right in front of me seemingly alive and crouching for a spring. On looking closer, however,1 satisfied myself that he was really and truly stone- dead, whereupon my followers crowded round, laughed and danced and shouted with joy like children, and bore me intriumph shoulder-high round the dead body.
These thanksgiving ceremonies being over, I examined the body and found that two bullets had taken effect- one close behind the left shoulder, evidently penetrating the heart, and the other in the off hind leg. The prize was indeed one to be proud of; his length from tip of nose to tip of tail was nine feet eight inches, he stood three feet nine inches high, and it took eight men to carry him back to camp. The only blemish was that the skin was much scored by the thorns through which he had so often forced his way in carrying off his victims.
The news of the death of one of the notorious man- eaters soon spread far and wide over the country; telegrams of congratulation came pouring in, and scores of people flocked from up and down the railway to see the skin for themselves.
From The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, by J. H. Patterson.
Author.-Lieutenant-Colonel J. H. Patterson (born 1867) served in the South African war (1900-1902) and in the World War in Egypt, Gallipoli, France, and Palestine. He is the author of the following books:-The Man-eaters of Tsavo (1907), In the Grip of the Nyika (1909), With the Zionists in Gallipoli (1916), With the Judeans in the Palestine Campaign (1922).
General Notes.-The Uganda railway runs from Mombasa on the eastern coast to Kisum on the north shore of Lake Victoria. You willprobably find the railway marked in your atlas. Tsavo is about 100 miles from Mombasa. This part of Africa is noted for its big game. The Swahili are East African people living on Zanzibar and the neighbouring coast of the mainland.
LESSON 12
THE plOugH
From Egypt, behind my oxen with their stately step and slow,Northward and east and west I went, to the desert sand and the snow;Down through the centuries, one by one, turning the clod to the shower,Till there"s never a land beneath the sun but has blosso- med behind my power.
I slid through the sodden rice-fields with my grunting, hump-backed steers;I turned the turf of the Tiber plain in Rome"s imperial years;I was left in the half-drawn furrow when Cincinnatus came,Giving his farm for the Forum"s stir to save his nation"s name.
Over the seas to the north I went-white cliffs and a sea- board blue;And my path was glad in the English grass as my stout,red Devons drew;
My path was glad in the English grass, for behind me rippled and curledThe corn that was life to the sailor-men that sailed the ships of the world.
And later I went to the north again, and day by day drew downA little more of the purple hills to join to my kingdom brown;And the whaups wheeled out to the moorland, but the grey gulls stayed with me,Where the Clydesdales drummed a marching song with their feathered feet on the lea.
Then the new lands called me westward. I found, on the prairies wide,A toil to my stoutest daring and a foe to test my pride;But I stooped my strength to the stiff, black loam, and I found my labour sweet,As I loosened the soil that was trampled firm by a millionbuffaloes" feet.
Then farther away to the northward; outward and out- ward still(But idle I crossed the Rockies, for there no plough maytill!)
Till I won to the plains unending, and there, on the edge of the snow,I ribbed them the fenceless wheat-fields, and taught themto reap and sow.