on crosses your path in the
desert it becomes lively, for the lion has generally been looking for
the man just as much as the man has sought the king of the forest. And
yet when they meet they always quarrel and fight it out. A little
contemplation of this unfortunate and long-standing feud between two
estimable families has led me to figure out a few calculations as to the
probability of the man and the lion crossing one another's path in the
jungle. In all these cases one has to start on certain more or less
arbitrary assumptions. That is why in the above illustration I have
thought it necessary to represent the paths in the desert with such
rigid regularity. Though the captain assures me that the tracks of the
lions usually run much in this way, I have doubts.

The puzzle is simply to find out in how many different ways the man and
the lion may be placed on two different spots that are not on the same
path. By "paths" it must be understood that I only refer to the ruled
lines. Thus, with the exception of the four corner spots, each combatant
is always on two paths and no more. It will be seen that there is a lot
of scope for evading one another in the desert, which is just what one
has always understood.

319.--THE KNIGHT-GUARDS.

[Illustration]

The knight is the irresponsible low comedian of the chessboard. "He is a
very uncertain, sneaking, and demoralizing rascal," says an American
writer. "He can only move two squares, but makes up in the quality of
his locomotion for its quantity, for he can spring one square sideways
and one forward simultaneously, like a cat; can stand on one leg in the
middle of the board and jump to any one of eight squares he chooses; can
get on one side of a fence and blackguard three or four men on the
other; has an objectionable way of inserting himself in safe places
where he can scare the king and compel him to move, and then gobble a
queen. For pure cussedness the knight has no equal, and when you chase
him out of one hole he skips into another." Attempts have been made over
and over again to obtain a short, simple, and exact definition of the
move of the knight--without success. It really consists in moving one
square like a rook, and then another square like a bishop--the two
operations being done in one leap, so that it does not matter whether
the first square passed over is occupied by another piece or not. It is,
in fact, the only leaping move in chess. But difficult as it