oo jungle, whose vivid green leaves afforded a
grateful contrast to the bleached grass, through which daily grew into
greater importance the noisy but clear rivulet, which brawled over
pebbles and gravel bottom to the impetuous stream thundering down rocky
slopes, past granite and basaltic pinnacles, in foamy sheets and curved
round bends, with moan and wail, until it gained the level lea, where it
flowed tranquilly on towards its eternity. They plunged through leafy
woods, where the sycamore was in its glory and towered aloft in an
enormous globe, acknowledged king of trees; through bamboo jungles,
through park-lands of unusual beauty, by conical hills, and along the
base of ridges of grey rock, defiling through deep ravines, until they
finally came to a verdant champaign dotted here and there with noble
trees, where the swards were as soft as velvet. And all these days they
had been descending slowly but surely towards the lake they were in
search of, and the vigorous young grass which now gladdened their eyes
informed them that they were not far from it. They formed their camp,
warmed their last morsel of dried meat, and comforted each other, that
in such a land they need not be long looking for game.

About midnight they were roused from their slumbers by the roar of a
lion, apparently very near them, and Moto said, as soon as he could
collect his faculties:

"What did I tell ye? I knew such a country as this must be full of
game, and the roar of that beast confirms it, for a lion is never found
except where there is food for him, but, Selim, thou must be ready with
thy rifle, for if the fellow is very hungry he will try to take one of
us."

"I see him," whispered Kalulu. "There! look at him; do ye not see that
dark form slowly moving past that big tree now? There! he stops and
looks towards us!"

"Hush!" whispered Simba, "he is coming. Be ready and sure with thy gun,
young master!"

"Shall I fire now?" asked Selim in a low tone.

"No, no, no," replied Moto. "Wait until I give the word. Pooh, young
master, thou must drive thy hall through and through his head. It will
never do to wound him."

The sound of the pulsations in their bodies might almost have been
heard, as still as the tree stem under whose leafage they were
crouching, they waited the ferocious and powerful thief and prowler who
ranges at will, seeking whom he may devour, throughout the long night in
the game lands of Africa. Fortunat