h one of his paws,
which threw it staggering some paces from me. He was evidently, I saw,
an old fellow, unable to leap as a young lion does. I ran forward, and
before he had again come up with the little zebra, I had levelled my
rifle and fired. The ball hit him in the head, and over he rolled.
Greatly to my astonishment, the little zebra, instead of attempting to
escape, rose to his feet, and, looking at me for a moment, came trotting
towards me. "I am sure I know you," I exclaimed. "You are Bella's
little pet." The poor little creature was very much hurt, but not, I
hoped, maimed altogether. From the way he came up to me, I had not the
slightest doubt that my conjecture was right; for when I held out my
hand, he put his nose into it, and seemed to recognise me as a friend.
He looked very thin, but as I examined him I was sure that he was an old
acquaintance. The lion, meantime, giving a few struggles, fell over
perfectly dead. Putting my handkerchief round the zebra's neck, I led
him up to our tree. Great was Natty's delight at seeing him.

"O Andrew," he exclaimed, "now there is a way for us to rejoin our
friends. Though you cannot carry me so far, Zebra, I am sure, can; and
as soon as he is well, we will set out."

As there was ample room for the little animal inside our cavern, I
brought him in, and closed the entrance. Having washed his side, I
bound it up with a handkerchief, when the bleeding stopped. The rain
had brought up an abundance of grass. I went out and cut some, which he
readily ate out of my hand. Having done this, I went back to examine
the lion. I found the mane thickly streaked with grey; and on examining
his huge mouth, I discovered that the teeth were completely worn away,
while his claws were broken and blunted. This accounted for the escape
of the little zebra I had heard that when lions in their old age can no
longer kill the prey to which they have been accustomed, they lie in
wait for the young of animals, or take to robbing the poultry-yards of
the natives, attacking their goats, and sometimes, indeed, try to carry
off women and children. It was the consciousness, probably, of his
weakness which made the old fellow so easily render up his prey to me on
a former occasion. In spite of his age and probable toughness, I was
tempted to see if I could get any steaks out of him, to form a supply of
food should our stock of meat not be sufficient to last us till we could
get ho