ppertaining to the
unfortunate Jim-Jim. The ground round our little camp was hard and
rocky, and we could not hit off any spoor of the lioness, though just
outside the skerm was a drop or two of blood. About three hundred yards
from the camp, and a little to the right, was a patch of sugar bush
mixed up with the usual mimosa, and for this I made, thinking that the
lioness would have been sure to take her prey there to devour it. On we
pushed through the long grass that was bent down beneath the weight of
the soaking dew. In two minutes we were wet through up to the thighs,
as wet as though we had waded through water. In due course, however,
we reached the patch of bush, and by the grey light of the morning
cautiously and slowly pushed our way into it. It was very dark under the
trees, for the sun was not yet up, so we walked with the most extreme
care, half expecting every minute to come across the lioness licking the
bones of poor Jim-Jim. But no lioness could we see, and as for Jim-Jim
there was not even a finger-joint of him to be found. Evidently they had
not come here.

"So pushing through the bush we proceeded to hunt every other likely
spot, but with the same result.

"'I suppose she must have taken him right away,' I said at last, sadly
enough. 'At any rate he will be dead by now, so God have mercy on him,
we can't help him. What's to be done now?'

"'I suppose that we had better wash ourselves in the pool, and then go
back and get something to eat. I am filthy,' said Harry.

"This was a practical if a somewhat unfeeling suggestion. At least it
struck me as unfeeling to talk of washing when poor Jim-Jim had been so
recently eaten. However, I did not let my sentiment carry me away, so
we went down to the beautiful spot that I have described, to wash. I was
the first to reach it, which I did by scrambling down the ferny bank.
Then I turned round, and started back with a yell--as well I might, for
almost from beneath my feet there came a most awful snarl.

"I had lit nearly upon the back of the lioness, that had been sleeping
on the slab where we always stood to dry ourselves after bathing. With a
snarl and a growl, before I could do anything, before I could even cock
my rifle, she had bounded right across the crystal pool, and vanished
over the opposite bank. It was all done in an instant, as quick as
thought.

"She had been sleeping on the slab, and oh, horror! what was that
sleeping beside her? It was the