ng instinct with which
he made straight for the camp.

He did not speak once, but there was something exceedingly tender in the
way in which he tried to carry the wounded boy, so as not to cause him
pain; for he did not realise that poor Coffee was quite insensible to
suffering, and had not felt anything since he had been struck down.

At last, when Jack felt that he could no longer plant one leg before the
other, there was the bright glow of the fire at the little camp, where
they found Mr Rogers in a terrible state of uneasiness at their
prolonged absence.

The moment, however, he found what was wrong, his surgical skill, which
was not slight, was brought to bear, and the terrible gaping wounds of
the poor boy were sewn up and bandaged.

Read by the light of all that Jack had to tell, it was plain enough what
had befallen poor Coffee. He had been stalked, by the same lion
probably as that which Jack had shot. The monster had sprung upon him,
clawing his bare back and shoulder; and then, probably being surfeited
with devouring some unfortunate beast, he had left the boy, and had been
roused again by another intruder upon his domains, while, but for Jack's
rifle, poor Chicory would have shared his fate.

"But a' didn't kill Chick, Boss Jack. Boss Jack kill um, and Boss Jack
and Chick go and kill all a lion now, and not leave not one."

This was the next morning, when the events of the past night had been
talked over, and Mr Rogers had expressed a hope that the boy might
live.

But, as he told his sons, it was very doubtful, for he had been horribly
clawed by the lion, though fortunately upon his back. Had the creature
seized him in front, he must have lost his life.

All attempts at continuing the journey were of course put off, a
comfortable bed being made up for Coffee where he would feel the cooling
breeze and be sheltered from the sun, while his father took his place by
him, and sat and kept the bandages over the wounds wet and cool.

It was Chicory who proposed that the lion's skin should be fetched in;
and after a promise to be careful, the boys started off, taking with
them Peter to skin the lion, Mr Rogers feeling that he could not leave,
with Coffee in such a state. In fact he hesitated about letting his
sons go, after such a shock, though he could not help feeling that they
were beginning to display a courage and decision that was most
praiseworthy, especially as it was linked with so much self-