llow stretched himself
comfortably atop a flat rock, in the position of a bronze lion on a
pedestal. We waited twenty minutes to make sure they were not going to
move. Then, leaving all our men except the gunbearers under the tree, we
slipped back until out of sight, and began to execute our flank
movement. The chances seemed good. The jumble of boulders was surrounded
by open country, and it was improbable the lions could leave it without
being seen. We had arranged with our men a system of signals.

For two hours we walked very hard in order to circle out of sight, down
wind, and to gain the other side of the ridge back of the lions. We
purposed slipping over the ridge and attacking from above. Even this was
but a slight advantage. The job was a stiff one, for we might expect
certainly the majority to charge.

Therefore, when we finally deployed in skirmish order and bore down on
that patch of brush and boulders, we were braced for the shock of
battle. We found nothing. Our men, however, signalled that the lions had
not left cover. After a little search, however, we discovered a very
shallow depression running slantwise up the hill and back of the cover.
So slight it was that even the glasses had failed to show it from below.
The lions had in all probability known about us from the start, and
were all the time engaged in withdrawing after their leisurely fashion.

Of course we hunted for them; in fact, we spent two days at it; but we
never found trace of them again. The country was too hard for tracking.
They had left Lucania. Probably by the time we had completed our two
hours of flanking movement they were five miles away. The presence of
cubs would account for this. In ordinary circumstances we should have
had a wonderful and exciting fight. But the sight of those fifteen great
beasts was one I shall never forget.

After we had hunted Lucania thoroughly we parted company with the Hills,
and returned to Juja Farm.

PART V.

THE TSAVO RIVER.

XXV.

VOI.

Part way up the narrow-gauge railroad from the coast is a station called
Voi. On his way to the interior the traveller stops there for an evening
meal. It is served in a high, wide stone room by white-robed Swahilis
under command of a very efficient and quiet East Indian. The voyager
steps out into the darkness to look across the way upon the outlines of
two great rounded hills against an amethyst sky. That is all he ever
sees of Voi, fo