carry meat, and returned to camp.

Even yet the men were not all in. We took lanterns and returned along
the road, for the long marches under a desert sun are no joke. At last
we had accounted for all but two. These we had to abandon. Next day we
found their loads, but never laid eyes on them again. Thus early our
twenty-nine became twenty-seven.

About nine o'clock, just as we were turning, a number of lions began to
roar. Usually a lion roars once or twice by way of satisfaction after
leaving a kill. These, however, were engaged in driving game, and hence
trying to make as much noise as possible. We distinguished plainly seven
individuals, perhaps more. The air trembled with the sound as to the
deepest tones of a big organ, only the organ is near and enclosed, while
these vibrations were in the open air and remote. For a few moments the
great salvos would boom across the veld, roll after roll of thunder;
then would ensue a momentary dead silence; then a single voice would
open, to be joined immediately by the others.

We awoke next day to an unexpected cold drizzle. This was a bit
uncomfortable, from one point of view, and most unusual, but it robbed
the thirst of its terrors. We were enabled to proceed leisurely, and to
get a good sleep near water every night. The wagon had, as usual, pulled
out some time during the night.

Our way led over a succession of low rolling ridges each higher than its
predecessor. Game herds fed in the shallow valleys between. At about ten
o'clock we came to the foot of the Mau Escarpment, and also to the
unexpected sight of the wagon outspanned. N'gombe Brown explained to us
that the oxen had refused to proceed farther in face of a number of