CHAPTER III
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 down, and darkness swallowed up the world, as the Kaffirs say,
but no lions came to swallow us up. We waited till dawn, because we
did not dare to go to sleep, and then at last with many bad thoughts
in our hearts we took such rest as we could get, and that was not
much.
"That morning we went out shooting, not because we wanted to, for we
were too depressed and tired, but because we had no more meat. For
three hours or more we wandered about in a broiling sun looking for
something to kill, but with absolutely no results. For some unknown
reason the game had grown very scarce about the spot, though when I
was there two years before every sort of large game except rhinoceros
and elephant was particularly abundant. The lions, of whom there were
many, alone remained, and I fancy that it was the fact of the game
they live on having temporarily migrated which made them so daring and
ferocious. As a general rule a lion is an amiable animal enough if he
is left alone, but a hungry lion is almost as dangerous as a hungry
man. One hears a great many different opinions expressed as to whether
or no the lion is remarkable for his courage, but the result of my
experience is that very much depends upon the state of his stomach. A
hungry lion will not stick at a trifle, whereas a full one will flee
at a very small rebuke.
"Well, we hunted all about, and nothing could we see, not even a
duiker or a bush buck; and at last, thoroughly tired and out of
temper, we started on our way back to camp, passing over the brow of a
steepish hill to do so. Just as we climbed the crest of the ridge I
came to a stand, for there, about six hundred yards to my left, his
beautiful curved horns outlined against the soft blue of the sky, I
saw a noble koodoo bull (/Strepsiceros kudu/). Even at that distance,
for as you know my eyes are very keen, I could distinctly see the
white stripes on its side when the light fell upon it, and its large
and pointed ears twitch as the flies worried it.
"So far so good; but how were we to get at it? It was ridiculous to
risk a shot at that great distance, and yet both the ground and the
wind lay very ill for stalking. It seemed to me that the only chance
would be to make a detour of at least a mile or more, and come up on
the other side of the koodoo. I called Harry to my side, and explained
to him what I thought would be our best course, when suddenly, without
any delay, the koodoo saved us further trouble by suddenly starting
off down the hill like a leaping rocket. I do not know what had
frightened it, certainly we had not. Perhaps a hyæna or a leopard--a
tiger as we call it there--had suddenly appeared; at any rate, off it
went, running slightly towards us, and I never saw a buck go faster. I
am afraid that forgetting Harry's presence I used strong language, and
really there was some excuse. As for Harry, he stood watching the
beautiful animal's course. Presently it vanished behind a patch of
bush, to emerge a few seconds later about five hundred paces from us,
on a stretch of comparatively level ground that was strewn with
boulders. On it went, clearing the boulders in its path with a
succession of great bounds that were beautiful to behold. As it did
so, I happened to look round at Harry, and perceived to my
astonishment that he had got his rifle to his shoulder.
"'You young donkey!' I exclaimed, 'surely you are not going to'--and
just at that moment the rifle went off.
"And then I think I saw what was in its way one of the most wonderful
things I ever remember in my hunting experience. The koodoo was at the
moment in the air, clearing a pile of stones with its fore-legs tucked
up underneath it. All of an instant the legs stretched themselves out
in a spasmodic fashion, it lit on them, and they doubled up beneath
it. Down went the noble buck, down upon his head. For a moment he
seemed to be standing on his horns, his hind-legs high in the air, and
then over he rolled and lay still.
"'Great Heavens!' I said, 'why, you've hit him! He's dead.'
"As for Harry, he said nothing, but merely looked scared, as well he
might, for such a marvellous, I may say such an appalling and ghastly
fluke it has never been my lot to witness. A man, let alone a boy,
might have fired a thousand such shots without ever touching the
object; which, mind you, was springing and bounding over rocks quite
five hundred yards away; and here this lad--taking a snap shot, and
merely allowing for speed and elevation by instinct, for he did not
put up his sights--had knocked the bull over as dead as a door-nail.
Well, I made no further remark, as the occasion was too solemn for
talking, but merely led the way to where the koodoo had fallen. There
he lay, beautiful and quite still; and there, high up, about half-way
down his neck, was a neat round hole. The bullet had severed the
spinal marrow, passing through the vertebræ and away on the other
side.
"It was already evening when, having cut as much of the best meat as
we could carry from the bull, and tied a red handkerchief and some
tufts of grass to his spiral horns, which, by the way, must have been
nearly five feet in length, in the hope of keeping the jackals and
aasvögels (vultures) from him, we finally got back to camp, to find
Pharaoh, who was getting rather anxious at our absence, ready to greet
us with the pleasing intelligence that another ox was sick. But even
this dreadful bit of intelligence could not dash Harry's spirits; the
fact of the matter being, incredible as it may appear, I do verily
believe that in his heart of hearts he set down the death of the
koodoo to the credit of his own skill. Now, though the lad was a
pretty shot enough, this of course was ridiculous, and I told him so
plainly.
"By the time that we had finished our supper of koodoo steaks (which
would have been better if the koodoo had been a little younger), it
was time to get ready for Jim-Jim's murderess. Accordingly we
determined again to expose the unfortunate sick ox, that was now
absolutely on its last legs, being indeed scarcely able to stand. All
the afternoon Pharaoh told us it had been walking round and round in a
circle as cattle in the last stage of redwater generally do. Now it
had come to a standstill, and was swaying to and fro with its head
hanging down. So we tied him up to the stump of the tree as on the
previous night, knowing that if the lioness did not kill him he would
be dead by morning. Indeed I was afraid that he would die at once, in
which case he would be of but little use as a bait, for the lion is a
sportsmanlike animal, and unless he is very hungry generally prefers
to kill his own dinner, though when that is once killed he will come
back to it again and again.
"Then we again went through our experience of the previous night,
sitting there hour after hour, till at last Harry fell fast asleep,
and, though I am accustomed to this sort of thing, even I could
scarcely keep my eyes open. Indeed I was just dropping off, when
suddenly Pharaoh gave me a push.
"'/Listen!/' he whispered.
"I was awake in a second, and listening with all my ears. From the
clump of bush to the right of the lightning-shattered stump to which
the sick ox was tied came a faint crackling noise. Presently it was
repeated. Something was moving there, faintly and quietly enough, but
still moving perceptibly, for in the intense stillness of the night
any sound seemed loud.
"I woke up Harry, who instantly said, 'Where is she? where is she?'
and began to point his rifle about in a fashion that was more
dangerous to us and the oxen than to any possible lioness.
"'Be quiet!' I whispered, savagely; and as I did so, with a low and
hideous growl a flash of yellow light sped out of the clump of bush,
past the ox, and into the corresponding clump upon the other side. The
poor sick creature gave a sort of groan, staggered round and then
began to tremble. I could see it do so clearly in the moonlight, which
was now very bright, and I felt a brute for having exposed the
unfortunate animal to such agony as he must undoubtedly be undergoing.
The lioness, for it was she, passed so quickly that we could not even
distinguish her movements, much less fire. Indeed at night it is
absolutely useless to attempt to shoot unless the object is very close
and standing perfectly still, and then the light is so deceptive and
it is so difficult to see the foresight that the best shot will miss
more often than he hits.
"'She will be back again presently,' I said; 'look out, but for
Heaven's sake don't fire unless I tell you to.'
"Hardly were the words out of my mouth when back she came, and again
passed the ox without striking him.
"'What on earth is she doing?' whispered Harry.
"'Playing with it as a cat does with a mouse, I suppose. She will kill
it presently.'
"As I spoke, the lioness once more flashed out of the bush, and this
time sprang right over the doomed and trembling ox. It was a beautiful
sight to see her clear him in the bright moonlight, as though it were
a trick which she had been taught.
"'I believe that she has escaped from a circus,' whispered Harry;
'it's jolly to see her jump.'
"I said nothing, but I thought to myself that if it was, Master Harry
did not quite appreciate the performance, and small blame to him. At
any rate, his teeth were chattering a little.
"Then came a longish pause, and I began to think that the lioness must
have gone away, when suddenly she appeared again, and with one mighty
bound landed right on to the ox, and struck it a frightful blow with
her paw.
"Down it went, and lay on the ground kicking feebly. She put down her
wicked-looking head, and, with a fierce growl of contentment, buried
her long white teeth in the throat of the dying animal. When she
lifted her muzzle again it was all stained with blood. She stood
facing us obliquely, licking her bloody chops and making a sort of
purring noise.
"'Now's our time,' I whispered, 'fire when I do.'
"I got on to her as well as I could, but Harry, instead of waiting for
me as I told him, fired before I did, and that of course hurried me.
But when the smoke cleared, I was delighted to see that the lioness
was rolling about on the ground behind the body of the ox, which
covered her in such a fashion, however, that we could not shoot again
to make an end of her.
"'She's done for! she's dead, the yellow devil!' yelled Pharaoh in
exultation; and at that very moment the lioness, with a sort of
convulsive rush, half-rolled, half-sprang, into the patch of thick
bush to the right. I fired after her as she went, but so far as I
could see without result; indeed the probability is that I missed her
clean. At any rate she got to the bush in safety, and once there,
began to make such a diabolical noise as I never heard before. She
would whine and shriek with pain, and then burst out into perfect
volleys of roaring that shook the whole place.
"'Well,' I said, 'we must just let her roar; to go into that bush
after her at night would be madness.'
"At that moment, to my astonishment and alarm, there came an answering
roar from the direction of the river, and then another from behind the
swell of bush. Evidently there were more lions about. The wounded
lioness redoubled her efforts, with the object, I suppose, of
summoning the others to her assistance. At any rate they came, and
quickly too, for within five minutes, peeping through the bushes of
our skerm fence, we saw a magnificent lion bounding along towards us,
through the tall tambouki grass, that in the moonlight looked for all
the world like ripening corn. On he came in great leaps, and a
glorious sight it was to see him. When within fifty yards or so, he
stood still in an open space and roared. The lioness roared too; then
there came a third roar, and another great black-maned lion stalked
majestically up, and joined number two, till really I began to realize
what the ox must have undergone.
"'Now, Harry,' I whispered, 'whatever you do don't fire, it's too
risky. If they let us be, let them be.'
"Well, the pair marched off to the bush, where the wounded lioness was
now roaring double tides, and the three of them began to snarl and
grumble away together there. Presently, however, the lioness ceased
roaring, and the two lions came out again, the black-maned one first--
to prospect, I suppose--walked to where the carcass of the ox lay, and
sniffed at it.
"'Oh, what a shot!' whispered Harry, who was trembling with
excitement.
"'Yes,' I said; 'but don't fire; they might all of them come for us.'
"Harry said nothing, but whether it was from the natural impetuosity
of youth, or because he was thrown off his balance by excitement, or
from sheer recklessness and devilment, I am sure I cannot tell you,
never having been able to get a satisfactory explanation from him; but
at any rate the fact remains, he, without word or warning, entirely
disregarding my exhortations, lifted up his Westley Richards and fired
at the black-maned lion, and, what is more, hit it slightly on the
flank.
"Next second there was a most awful roar from the injured lion. He
glared around him and roared with pain, for he was badly stung; and
then, before I could make up my mind what to do, the great black-maned
brute, clearly ignorant of the cause of his hurt, sprang right at the
throat of his companion, to whom he evidently attributed his
misfortune. It was a curious sight to see the astonishment of the
other lion at this most unprovoked assault. Over he rolled with an
angry snarl, and on to him sprang the black-maned demon, and began to
worry him. This finally awoke the yellow-maned lion to a sense of the
situation, and I am bound to say that he rose to it in a most
effective manner. Somehow or other he got to his feet, and, roaring
and snarling frightfully, closed with his mighty foe.
"Then ensued a most tremendous scene. You know what a shocking thing
it is to see two large dogs fighting with abandonment. Well, a whole
hundred of dogs could not have looked half so terrible as those two
great brutes as they rolled and roared and rent in their horrid rage.
They gripped each other, they tore at each other's throat, till their
manes came out in handfuls, and the red blood streamed down their
yellow hides. It was an awful and a wonderful thing to see the great
cats tearing at each other with all the fierce energy of their savage
strength, and making the night hideous with their heart-shaking noise.
And the fight was a grand one too. For some minutes it was impossible
to say which was getting the best of it, but at last I saw that the
black-maned lion, though he was slightly bigger, was failing. I am
inclined to think that the wound in his flank crippled him. Anyway, he
began to get the worst of it, which served him right, as he was the
aggressor. Still I could not help feeling sorry for him, for he had
fought a gallant fight, when his antagonist finally got him by the
throat, and, struggle and strike out as he would, began to shake the
life out of him. Over and over they rolled together, a hideous and
awe-inspiring spectacle, but the yellow one would not loose his hold,
and at length poor black-mane grew faint, his breath came in great
snorts and seemed to rattle in his nostrils, then he opened his huge
mouth, gave the ghost of a roar, quivered, and was dead.
"When he was quite sure that the victory was his own, the yellow-maned
lion loosed his grip and sniffed at the fallen foe. Then he licked the
dead lion's eye, and next, with his fore-feet resting on the carcass,
sent up his own chant of victory, that went rolling and pealing down
the dark paths of the night. And at this point I interfered. Taking a
careful sight at the centre of his body, in order to give the largest
possible margin for error, I fired, and sent a .570 express bullet
right through him, and down he dropped dead upon the carcass of his
mighty foe.
"After that, fairly satisfied with our performances, we slept
peaceably till dawn, leaving Pharaoh to keep watch in case any more
lions should take it into their heads to come our way.
"When the sun was well up we arose, and went very cautiously--at least
Pharaoh and I did, for I would not allow Harry to come--to see if we
could find any trace of the wounded lioness. She had ceased roaring
immediately upon the arrival of the two lions, and had not made a
sound since, from which we concluded that she was probably dead. I was
armed with my express, while Pharaoh, in whose hands a rifle was
indeed a dangerous weapon, to his companions, had an axe. On our way
we stopped to look at the two dead lions. They were magnificent
animals, both of them, but their pelts were entirely spoiled by the
terrible mauling they had given to each other, which was a sad pity.
"In another minute we were following the blood spoor of the wounded
lioness into the bush, where she had taken refuge. This, I need hardly
say, we did with the utmost caution; indeed, I for one did not at all
like the job, and was only consoled by the reflection that it was
necessary, and that the bush was not thick. Well, we stood there,
keeping as far from the trees as possible, searching and looking
about, but no lioness could we see, though we saw plenty of blood.
"'She must have gone somewhere to die, Pharaoh,' I said in Zulu.
"'Yes, Inkoos,' he answered, 'she has certainly gone away.'
"Hardly were the words out of his mouth, when I heard a roar, and
starting round saw the lioness emerge from the very centre of a bush,
in which she had been curled up, just behind Pharaoh. Up she went on
to her hind-legs, and as she did so I noticed that one of her fore-
paws was broken near the shoulder, for it hung limply down. Up she
went, towering right over Pharaoh's head, as she did so lifting her
uninjured paw to strike him to the earth. And then, before I could get
my rifle round or do anything to avert the oncoming catastrophe, the
Zulu did a very brave and clever thing. Realizing his own imminent
danger, he bounded to one side, and swinging the heavy axe round his
head, brought it down right on to the back of the lioness, severing
the vertebræ and killing her instantaneously. It was wonderful to see
her collapse all in a heap like an empty sack.
"'My word, Pharaoh!' I said, 'that was well done, and none too soon.'
"'Yes,' he answered, with a little laugh, 'it was a good stroke,
Inkoos. Jim-Jim will sleep better now.'
"Then, calling Harry to us, we examined the lioness. She was old, if
one might judge from her worn teeth, and not very large, but thickly
made, and must have possessed extraordinary vitality to have lived so
long, shot as she was; for, in addition to her broken shoulder, my
express bullet had blown a great hole in her middle that one might
have put a fist into.
"Well, that is the story of the death of poor Jim-Jim and how we
avenged it. It is rather interesting in its way, because of the fight
between the two lions, of which I never saw the like in all my
experience, and I know something of lions and their manners."
"And how did you get back to Pilgrim's Rest?" I asked Hunter
Quatermain when he had finished his yarn.
"Ah, we had a nice job with that," he answered. "The second sick ox
died, and so did another, and we had to get on as best we could with
three harnessed unicorn fashion, while we pushed behind. We did about
four miles a day, and it took us nearly a month, during the last week
of which we pretty well starved."
"I notice," I said, "that most of your trips ended in disaster of some
sort or another, and yet you went on making them, which strikes one as
a little strange."
"Yes, I dare say: but then, remember I got my living for many years
out of hunting. Besides, half the charm of the thing lay in the
dangers and disasters, though they were terrible enough at the time.
Another thing is, my trips were not all disastrous. Some time, if you
like, I will tell you a story of one which was very much the reverse,
for I made several thousand pounds out of it, and saw one of the most
extraordinary sights a hunter ever came across. It was on this trip
that I met the bravest native woman I ever knew; her name was Maiwa.
But it is too late now, and besides, I am tired of talking about
myself. Pass the water, will you!"
