drag it to the ground. The great height and giant strength of the
buffalo prevented the lion from at once succeeding, and with a bound and
a shake it shook off its foe. In an instant, however, the lion with a
savage roar was again on its prey, which with its claws and teeth it
tore fearfully.

Hans, who had been an idle spectator of this combat, almost regretted he
had not done something to prevent the lion from killing the buffalo, but
it was too late now to save the animal. The sight, too, was one which
Hans had never before witnessed. He had often found the remains of
creatures that lions had killed and partly eaten; he had also seen a
lion kill a zebra, but that was an almost instantaneous event. To see
somewhat of a combat between a lion and a buffalo in their native
desert, the one the most powerful among the carnivora, the other the
most formidable among the bovine species, was a scene to be remembered.

"What would they say to this in Cape Town?" thought Hans, as he saw the
buffalo, after dragging the lion some distance, and vainly striving to
cast him off, sink to the ground, and shortly after lie quietly down, as
though merely fatigued by a day's journey.

Since his arrival in the eastern frontier, Hans had enjoyed no real
sport. To a man who has tasted the excitement of large game shooting,
the sport to be obtained from merely shooting birds or small buck is
scarcely worthy of the name. As the whist player who has been
accustomed to play for a high stake scarcely feels any interest in a
game on which a postage stamp only may depend, so the South African
hunter does not deem it sport unless there is some risk encountered or
skill required in slaying his game.

When Hans saw the buffalo killed by the lion, his old instinct came to
him; and though he was alone in the desert, and had no object in running
a risk, still the idea at once occurred to him of showing the lion that
man was its master. Thus he determined on a no less daring feat than to
approach the buffalo, and select from it a choice piece of meat for
dinner.

Having made up his mind to this proceeding, Hans walked round a portion
of the marsh, and then approached the buffalo, which was by this time
quite dead. The lion saw Hans when about eighty yards from him, and the
brute seemed quite astonished at the sight. Standing erect on the
buffalo, it stared at Hans, its blood-stained paws giving it a most
formidable aspect. As the animal s