e Moslems cried.

They now proceeded to divide their ammunition, the powder and the
bullets for Simba and Moto and Abdullah; while Selim, on inspecting his
cartridge-bag, found a box with a thousand caps and one hundred bullets
for his "Joe Manton." Kalulu employed himself in examining the string
of his bow; while Niani, seeing everybody else examine his weapon,
thought he might as well follow their example, and began to look at the
blade of his spear in a wise manner, and delighted everybody with the
news that it was sharp.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

MORNING IN THE AFRICAN FOREST--BUFFALO--THE SUCCESSFUL STALKING--PLENTY
OF BEEF--LITTLE NIANI'S STORY--THE END OF NIONI'S STORY--SIMBA ADOPTS
NIANI AS HIS SON--THE TORMENTS OF A JUNGLE--JUNGLE AND PLAIN--THE
JOURNEY AND ITS FATIGUES--THE LION--THE LION DESPOILED OF HIS MANE--A
CORNFIELD--A CHANCE OF ESCAPE.

As the sky began to flush and brighten, and to be suffused with colour
as it heralded the uprising sun, our party of travellers, cosily asleep
in their camp, began to yawn and to stretch their limbs until they were
finally awake, and sat up.

There were no tents to pack, there were no loads to prepare for the
journey; there was nothing for them to do but to shake off the grass and
soft earth on which they had slept from their bodies, leave the camp,
and march. This they did.

Nothing is so delightful as an African forest at break of day, where
there is no high grass dripping with dew, no cane with its sword leaves
to slash you wet with a showering rain as you pass under, nothing but
the soft brown leaf-mould on the ground into which the feet sink as into
a thick Persian carpet, thus giving you ample opportunities to observe
the beauty of a forest at early morn, without inconvenience or anxiety
on the score of your health. The forest, with its countless trees, each
loaded with its wealth of leaves and twigs, seems in the first grey
opaque light before sunrise to have been planted, full-grown, and decked
with light green leaves during the chaos of night, as they stand in
their several positions row upon row in numbers untold, all wonderfully
silent and still, awaiting the issue of the morning. And while they
stand thus apparently labouring under excitement, though outwardly still
as death, in the grey light and opacity through which the trees were
first seen, there suddenly dart myriads of bright sheets of brilliant
whiteness, which soon alternate with some of the