Part 21 (2/2)

West fired again as nearly as he could judge where the beast would be, and the next moment Ingleborough was kneeling by his side.

”What is it--lions?” he panted.

”Yes,” whispered West, whose fingers were busy re-loading, and he listened for the next sound, but only to hear a deep sighing breath on either side, telling that the horses had been too much terrified to start away, or else felt that they would be safer with their masters, and that to try to gallop off meant the springing of a savage enemy upon their backs.

The silence continued for nearly a minute, and then there was a vicious snarling, apparently some fifty yards away, while without a moment's hesitation Ingleborough raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired as nearly as he could judge at the spot from whence the noise came. He fired twice, the shots being so close together as almost to be like one for a while. Then after a perceptible interval they were echoed from the walls of a distant kopje, and again from another, before they died away.

”That has startled the lions,” said Ingleborough; ”but I'm afraid it will startle the Boers and bring them to see what's the matter.”

”Yes, the lions are gone,” said West. ”Hark at that! Who says horses have no sense?”

For the _crop, crop, crop_ of the browsing animals had begun again from close at hand, and the comrades stood listening for some little time while the otherwise unbroken stillness once more reigned.

”What's to be done?” said West. ”Shall we make a start at once, or wait for daylight?”

”I was thinking,” replied Ingleborough. ”If we start now we have the advantage of the darkness to hide us, but the disadvantage too, for we may go blundering right into the midst of some commando. I don't think the firing could do us any harm, after all, for the enemy would not be able to tell where the sounds came from. I think we had better stay where we are and wait for morning.”

”I think so too,” said West, with a sigh of relief; ”but one of us ought to watch in case the lions come back.”

”They will not come back!” said Ingleborough decisively. ”From what I know of their habits they'll have been too much scared to risk their lives again. You hit one of them; there's no doubt about that.”

”You think there was more than one?”

”I should say it was a family party of an old lioness and two or three half-grown cubs.”

”Then we may lie down and sleep again?”

”Yes; we must trust to our luck, Noll; there's a good deal of chance in these affairs.”

West hesitated for a few minutes, and then followed his companion's example, lying awake for some time thinking of what a strange change this was from his quiet life in the offices of the company; and then, as he began to ponder over what might be to come, the subject grew too difficult for him and he fell fast asleep.

But he was the first to awaken in the grey dawn, to find that the horses were close at hand, browsing away contentedly enough, and ready to neigh softly and submit to his caress when he walked up to them; while, as soon as he had satisfied himself that they had not suffered in any way, he walked in the direction in which he had fired during the night, to find footprints in several directions, and in one place the dust among some stones torn up and scattered, as if one of the brutes had fallen on its side and scratched up the earth. Plainer still in the way of proof of what had happened, there were spots and smudges of blood, giving thorough evidence that one of the lions had been wounded by the chance shot, and had fallen, and struggled fiercely to regain its feet.

He had just arrived at this conclusion when Ingleborough found him.

”Hallo!” cried his companion; ”that was a good blind shot, Noll. Well done, lad! A full-grown lion too! Look at its pads. It must have had a nasty flesh-wound to have bled like this.”

”Do you think it'll be lying anywhere near, half-dead, or quite?”

”No! A cat has nine lives, they say; and really this kind of beast is very, hard to kill. Look, there are the pugs, along with those of three more, all half-grown, going right away yonder into the open veldt. We might hunt 'em down, but we don't want to, eh?”

”Absurd! We want to get on at once. Can you see any pug, as you call it, of Boers?”

”No. I've had a good look round, and as soon as we've had a mouthful we'll be off. I say, it's wonderful, isn't it, how one can sleep out here on the veldt?”

”Surrounded by dangers!” replied West. Then laconically: ”Yes.”

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