the black sky, marking another for its own. Who would be the next?

As was their custom, they took turns at guard, each man doing two
hours and then arousing the next. Brady had gone on from eight
to ten, followed by Sinclair from ten to twelve, then Bradley had
been awakened. Brady would stand the last guard from two to
four, as they had determined to start the moment that it became
light enough to insure comparative safety upon the trail.

The snapping of a twig aroused Brady out of a dead sleep, and as
he opened his eyes, he saw that it was broad daylight and that at
twenty paces from him stood a huge lion. As the man sprang to
his feet, his rifle ready in his hand, Sinclair awoke and took in
the scene in a single swift glance. The fire was out and Bradley
was nowhere in sight. For a long moment the lion and the men
eyed one another. The latter had no mind to fire if the beast
minded its own affairs--they were only too glad to let it go its
way if it would; but the lion was of a different mind.

Suddenly the long tail snapped stiffly erect, and as though it
had been attached to two trigger fingers the two rifles spoke in
unison, for both men knew this signal only too well--the
immediate forerunner of a deadly charge. As the brute's head had
been raised, his spine had not been visible; and so they did what
they had learned by long experience was best to do. Each covered
a front leg, and as the tail snapped aloft, fired. With a
hideous roar the mighty flesh-eater lurched forward to the ground
with both front legs broken. It was an easy accomplishment in
the instant before the beast charged--after, it would have been
well-nigh an impossible feat. Brady stepped close in and finished