Meantime approached, on tiptoe, jackals and hyenas, but dared not come too near.  Slate-colored vultures settled at a little distance, but not a soul dared interfere with the cubs; they saw the lion was acting sentinel, and they knew better than come near.

After a time, papa feared for the digestion of those brats, or else his own mouth watered; for he came up, knocked them head over heels with his velvet paw, and they took the gentle hint, and ran into the wood double quick.

Then the lion began tearing away at the eland, and bolting huge morsels greedily.  This made the rabble’s mouth water.  The hyenas, and jackals, and vultures formed a circle ludicrous to behold, and that circle kept narrowing as the lion tore away at his prey.  They increased in number, and at last hunger overcame prudence; the rear rank shoved on the front, as amongst men, and a general attack seemed imminent.

Then the lion looked up at these invaders, uttered a reproachful growl, and went at them, patting them right and left, and knocking them over.  He never touched a vulture, nor indeed did he kill an animal.  He was a lion, and only killed to eat; yet he soon cleared the place, because he knocked over a few hyenas and jackals, and the rest, being active, tumbled over the vultures before they could spread their heavy wings.  After this warning, they made a respectful circle again, through which, in due course, the gorged lion stalked into the wood.

A savage’s sentiments change quickly, and the Hottentot, fearing little from a full lion, was now giggling at Staines’s side.  Staines asked him which he thought was the lord of all creatures, a man or a lion.

“A lion,” said Blacky, amazed at such a shallow question.

Staines now got up, and proposed to continue their journey.  But Blacky was for waiting till the lion was gone to sleep after his meal.

While they discussed the question, the lion burst out of the wood within hearing of their voices, as his pricked-up ears showed, and made straight for them at a distance of scarcely thirty yards.

Now, the chances are, the lion knew nothing about them, and only came to drink at the kloof, after his meal, and perhaps lie under the acacias:  but who can think calmly, when his first lion bursts out on him a few paces off?  Staines shouldered his rifle, took a hasty, flurried aim, and sent a bullet at him.

If he had missed him, perhaps the report might have turned the lion; but he wounded him, and not mortally.  Instantly the enraged beast uttered a terrific roar, and came at him with his mane distended with rage, his eyes glaring, his mouth open, and his whole body dilated with fury.

At that terrible moment, Staines recovered his wits enough to see that what little chance he had was to fire into the destroyer, not at him.  He kneeled, and levelled at the centre of the lion’s chest, and not till he was within five yards did he fire.  Through the smoke he saw the lion in the air above him, and rolled shrieking into the stream and crawled like a worm under the bank, by one motion, and there lay trembling.  A few seconds of sick stupor passed:  all was silent.  Had the lion lost him?  Was it possible he might yet escape?