ome reason which he did not explain, had taken his
great Zulu shield from where it hung behind one of the waggon-wheels,
and, armed with a couple of assegais, kept making expeditions to right
and left--and quite as often hung back, watchfully keeping an eye to the
rear.

It was a case of man's cunning against that of a beast; and after being
away some hours, he came up with the not very pleasant information that
a huge lion, one of the ferocious maneless kind, was tracking the
waggon, and would no doubt hang upon their trail until it had pounced
upon one of the horses, and carried it off.

"Oh, that would be horrible," cried Jack. "I'd almost sooner that he
would take me than my horse."

"Have you seen it, General?" said Dick; "or do you think it is following
us, from its footprints?"

"I have seen it," said the General gravely. "I felt sure from some
footmarks I had seen that some great beast was following us--one of
those that scented the horses last night. Once or twice I thought the
steps might be those of some lion that had passed this way; but, after
watching, I found them so often that at last I lay down amongst the long
grass, covered myself with my shield, and waited. It was very, very
long, and nothing came, and I thought again that I was mistaken; but I
knew that if it was a lion, tracking down the horses and bullocks, he
would come close between the wheel marks of the waggon, and there slay."

"And did you mean to kill him, General?" said Dick eagerly.

"One man cannot kill a lion with an assegai, Boss Dick," said the Zulu,
"and live afterwards and hunt with his friends. It takes the little
bullet from a gun to kill a lion well, for you can stand and shoot
farther off than a lion can spring. No, I only wanted to know and be
sure; and if I was sure I said, Boss Dick or Boss Jack will shoot him.
So I waited till I thought he would not come, and then I was going to
follow the waggon, when I heard something come steal--steal--steal
along; and when at last I looked from under my shield, there he stood
amongst the grass, close to me, watching the waggon. If I had stood up
I could have speared him; but I was lying down, and if I had tried to
get up he would have sprung upon me, the great thing; so I held the
shield more over me, like an animal with a shell, and crept a little way
on to meet him, and then made a jump at him, and he roared and dashed
away."

"But why didn't he seize you?" said Jack.