hat he who first draws blood claims the game, the lioness was adjudged
to belong to Tom.

Our hero returned to his blankets once more, congratulating himself not
a little on his good fortune, when his attention was arrested by two
shots in succession at no great distance. Seizing his gun he ran to the
place expecting to find that more game had been slain, but he only found
Hardy standing over one of the oxen which was breathing its last. The
lions had driven it mad with terror during the night, and the trader had
been obliged to shoot it. This was a great misfortune, for it was about
the best ox in the train.

CHAPTER SIX.

GIVES A FEW HINTS TO WOULD-BE HUNTERS, AND A FRIEND IN NEED IS
INTRODUCED.

In describing the principal incidents of a long journey, it is
impossible to avoid crowding them together, so as to give a somewhat
false impression of the expedition as a whole. The reader must not
suppose that our hunters were perpetually engaged in fierce and deadly
conflict with wild beasts and furious elements! Although travelling in
Africa involves a good deal more of this than is to be experienced in
most other parts of the world, it is not without its periods of calm and
repose. Neither must it be imagined that the hunters--whom hitherto we
have unavoidably exhibited in the light of men incapable of being
overcome either by fatigues or alarms--were always in robust health,
ready at any moment to leap into the grasp of a lion or the jaws of a
crocodile. Their life, on the whole, was checkered. Sometimes health
prevailed in the camp, and all went on well and heartily; so that they
felt disposed to regard wagon-travelling--in the words of a writer of
great experience--as a prolonged system of picnicking, excellent for the
health, and agreeable to those who are not over-fastidious about
trifles, and who delight in being in the open air. At other times,
especially when passing through unhealthy regions, some of their number
were brought very low by severe illness, and others--even the
strongest--suffered from the depressing influence of a deadly climate.
But they were all men of true pluck, who persevered through heat and
cold, health and sickness, until, in two instances, death terminated
their career.

It may not be out of place here to make a few remarks for the benefit of
those ardent spirits who feel desperately heroic and emulative when
reading at their own firesides, and who are tempted by descrip