Shortly after this the moon came up, and notwithstanding every variety
of roar that echoed over the water to us from the lions on the banks, we
began, thinking ourselves perfectly secure, to gradually doze off.

I do not quite know what it was that made me poke my head out of the
friendly shelter of the blanket, perhaps because I found that the
mosquitoes were biting right through it. Anyhow, as I did so I heard Job
whisper, in a frightened voice--

"Oh, my stars, look there!"

Instantly we all of us looked, and this was what we saw in the
moonlight. Near the shore were two wide and ever-widening circles of
concentric rings rippling away across the surface of the water, and in
the heart and centre of the circles were two dark moving objects.

"What is it?" asked I.

"It is those damned lions, sir," answered Job, in a tone which was
an odd mixture of a sense of personal injury, habitual respect, and
acknowledged fear, "and they are swimming here to _heat_ us," he added,
nervously picking up an "h" in his agitation.

I looked again: there was no doubt about it; I could catch the glare of
their ferocious eyes. Attracted either by the smell of the newly killed
waterbuck meat or of ourselves, the hungry beasts were actually storming
our position.

Leo already had his rifle in his hand. I called to him to wait till they
were nearer, and meanwhile grabbed my own. Some fifteen feet from us