tainly they're lions! Did you think you were dreaming? Are you
glad you came in when I called you? Would you rather go out again now?
Make a noise like a herd of cattle, don't they! That's because
they're bold. They don't care who hears them! The day is ours. It
used to be theirs, but the white man has come and broken up their
empire. The night is still theirs. They're reveling in it! They're
boasting of it! Every single night they come swaggering through like
this just after sunset. They'll come again just before dawn, roaring
the same way. You'll hear them. They'll wake you all right. No
trouble in this hotel about getting guests down-stairs for early
breakfast!"

"I'll get my rifle and settle the hash of one or two of them before I
eat supper!" announced Will, turning away to make good his words. But
the proprietor seized him by the arm.

"Don't be foolish! It has been tried too often! I never allowed such
foolishness at my place. A party up-street fired from the windows.
Couldn't see very well in the dark, but wounded two or three lions.
What happened, eh? Why the whole pack of lions laid siege to the
house! They broke into the stable and killed three horses, a donkey,
and all the cows and sheep. There weren't any shutters on the house
windows--nothing but glass. It wasn't long before a young lion broke a
window, and in no time there were three full-grown ones into the house
after him. They injured one man so severely that he died next day.
They only shot two of the lions that got inside. The other two got
safely away, and since that time people here have known enough not to
interfere with them except by daylight! They'll do no harm to speak of
unless you fire and enrage them. They'll kill the stray dogs, or any
other animal they find loose; and heaven help the man they meet! But
the place to be after six P.M. in Nairobi is indoors. And it's the
place to stay until after sunrise! Hear them roar! Aren't they
magnificent? Listen!"

The noise that twenty or thirty lions can make, deliberately bent on
making it and roaring all at once, is unbelievable. They throw their
heads up and glory in strength of lungs until thunders take second
place and the listener knows why not the bravest, not the most
dangerous of beasts has managed to impose the fable of his grandeur on
men's imagination.

We were summoned to the table by the din of Georges Coutlass rising to
new heights of gallantry.