to the unfortunate Jim-Jim. The ground round our little camp was hard
and rocky, and we could not hit off any spoor of the lioness, though
just outside the skerm was a drop or two of blood. About three hundred
yards from the camp, and a little to the right, was a patch of sugar
bush mixed up with the usual mimosa, and for this I made, thinking
that the lioness would have been sure to take her prey there to devour
it. On we pushed through the long grass that was bent down beneath the
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,