butcher could have done. All this while I dared not move, for he kept
lifting his head and keeping an eye on me as he licked his bloody chops.
When he had cleared Kaptein out he opened his mouth and roared, and I am
not exaggerating when I say that the sound shook the waggon. Instantly
there came back an answering roar.

"'Heavens!' I thought, 'there is his mate.'

"Hardly was the thought out of my head when I caught sight in the
moonlight of the lioness bounding along through the long grass, and
after her a couple of cubs about the size of mastiffs. She stopped
within a few feet of my head, and stood, waved her tail, and fixed me
with her glowing yellow eyes; but just as I thought that it was all over
she turned and began to feed on Kaptein, and so did the cubs. There were
four of them within eight feet of me, growling and quarrelling, rending
and tearing, and crunching poor Kaptein's bones; and there I lay shaking
with terror, and the cold perspiration pouring out of me, feeling like
another Daniel come to judgment in a new sense of the phrase. Presently
the cubs had eaten their fill, and began to get restless. One went round
to the back of the waggon and pulled at the Impala buck that hung there,
and the other came round my way and commenced the sniffing game at my
leg. Indeed, he did more than that, for my trouser being hitched up a
little, he began to lick the bare skin with his rough tongue. The more
he licked the more he liked it, to judge from his increased vigour and
the loud purring noise he made. Then I knew that the end had come, for
in another second his file-like tongue would have rasped through the
skin of my leg--which was luckily pretty tough--and have tasted the
blood, and then there would be no chance for me. So I just lay there and
thought of my sins, and prayed to the Almighty, and reflected that after
all life was a very enjoyable thing.