A Tale Of Three Lions Read Online Free PDF Page A

had rolled down
the sloping rock into the water.
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CHAPTER 3
JIM-JIM IS AVENGED
    “We never bathed in that pool again; indeed for my part I could never look
at its peaceful purity fringed round with waving ferns without thinking of
that ghastly head which rolled itself off through the water when we tried to
catch it.
    “Poor Jim-Jim! We buried what was left of him, which was not very much, in
an old bread-bag, and though whilst he lived his virtues were not great, now
that he was gone we could have wept over him. Indeed, Harry did weep
outright; while Pharaoh used very bad language in Zulu, and I registered a
quiet little vow on my account that I would let daylight into that lioness
before I was forty-eight hours older, if by any means it could be done.
    “Well, we buried him, and there he lies in the bread-bag (which I rather
grudged him, as it was the only one we had), where lions will not trouble him
any more—though perhaps the hyænas will, if they consider that
there is enough on him left to make it worth their while to dig him up.
However, he won’t mind that; so there is an end of the book of Jim-Jim.
    “The question that now remained was, how to circumvent his murderess. I
knew that she would be sure to return as soon as she was hungry again, but I
did not know when she would be hungry. She had left so little of Jim-Jim
behind her that I should scarcely expect to see her the next night, unless
indeed she had cubs. Still, I felt that it would not be wise to miss the
chance of her coming, so we set about making preparations for her reception.
The first thing that we did was to strengthen the bush wall of the skerm by
dragging a large quantity of the tops of thorn-trees together, and laying
them one on the other in such a fashion that the thorns pointed outwards.
This, after our experience of the fate of Jim-Jim, seemed a very necessary
precaution, since if where one goat can jump another can follow, as the
Kaffirs say, how much more is this the case when an animal so active and so
vigorous as the lion is concerned! And now came the further question, how
were we to beguile the lioness to return? Lions are animals that have a
strange knack of appearing when they are not wanted, and keeping studiously
out of the way when their presence is required. Of course it was possible
that if she had found Jim-Jim to her liking she would come back to see if
there were any more of his kind about, but still it was not to be relied
on.
    “Harry, who as I have said was an eminently practical boy, suggested to
Pharaoh that he should go and sit outside the skerm in the moonlight as a
sort of bait, assuring him that he would have nothing to fear, as we should
certainly kill the lioness before she killed him. Pharaoh however, strangely
enough, did not seem to take to this suggestion. Indeed, he walked away, much
put out with Harry for having made it.
    “It gave me an idea, however.
    “‘By Jove!’ I said, ‘there is the sick ox. He must die sooner or later, so
we may as well utilize him.’
    “Now, about thirty yards to the left of our skerm, as one stood facing
down the hill towards the river, was the stump of a tree that had been
destroyed by lightning many years before, standing equidistant between, but a
little in front of, two clumps of bush, which were severally some fifteen
paces from it.
    “Here was the very place to tie the ox; and accordingly a little before
sunset the sick animal was led forth by Pharaoh and made fast there, little
knowing, poor brute, for what purpose; and we began our long vigil, this time
without a fire, for our object was to attract the lioness and not to scare
her.
    “For hour after hour we waited, keeping ourselves awake by pinching each
other—it is, by the way, remarkable what a difference of opinion as
to the force of pinches requisite to the occasion exists in the mind of
pincher and pinched—but no lioness came. At last the moon went