ce more in
getting clear away, for although I tracked him for some little
distance, I eventually lost his trail in a rocky patch of ground.

Bitterly did I anathematise the hour in which I had relied on a
borrowed weapon, and in my disappointment and vexation I abused owner,
maker, and rifle with fine impartiality. On extracting the unexploded
cartridge, I found that the needle had not struck home, the cap being
only slightly dented; so that the whole fault did indeed lie with the
rifle, which I later returned to Farquhar with polite compliments.
Seriously, however, my continued ill-luck was most exasperating; and
the result was that the Indians were more than ever confirmed in their
belief that the lions were really evil spirits, proof against mortal
weapons. Certainly, they did seem to bear charmed lives.

After this dismal failure there was, of course, nothing to do but to
return to camp. Before doing so, however, I proceeded to view the dead
donkey, which I found to have been only slightly devoured it the
quarters. It is a curious fact that lions always begin at the tail of
their prey and eat upwards towards the head. As their meal had thus
been interrupted evidently at the very beginning, I felt pretty sure
that one or other of the brutes would return to the carcase at
nightfall. Accordingly, as there was no tree of any kind close at hand,
I had a staging erected some ten feet away from the body. This machan
was about twelve feet high and was composed of four poles stuck into
the ground and inclined towards each other at the top, where a plank
was lashed to serve as a seat. Further, as the nights were still pitch
dark, I had the donkey's carcase secured by strong wires to a
neighbouring stump, so that the lions might not be able to drag it away
before I could get a shot at them.

At sundown, therefore, I took up my position on my airy perch, and much
to the disgust of my gun-bearer, Mahina, I decided to go alone. I would
gladly have taken him with me, indeed, but he had a bad cough, and I
was afraid lest he should make any involuntary noise or movement which
might spoil all. Darkness fell almost immediately, and everything
became extraordinarily still. The silence of an African jungle on a
dark night needs to be experienced to be realised; it is most
impressive, especially when one is absolutely alone and isolated from
one's fellow creatures, as I was then. The solitude and stillness, and
the purpose of my vigil