Crouch had seen nothing. He was prepared to swear that he had never been to sleep. Throughout the morning the matter seemed to worry him a good deal.
"I can't make it out," he said, talking to himself, as was his wont. "I don't believe any leopard would do it. The beasts are terrified of fire. A starving leopard might; but no leopard could very well starve in a valley like this, which positively abounds in game." At various intervals throughout the day he gave expression to the same opinion.
That night Max took the first watch, from seven o'clock to twelve. During that period never once did he relax his vigilance. He sat, hour by hour, with the fire at his elbow, and his face turned towards the river. He was thinking that it was nearly time to awaken Crouch, and had pulled out his watch, when he heard the sound of a breaking twig a few feet behind him.
He turned sharply, and was just in time to discern the shadow of some great beast disappearing into the jungle. His eyes shot back to the fire, and there he beheld to his amazement that once again their breakfast had disappeared. He immediately awoke the little sea-captain, and told him what had happened.
"Did it look like a leopard?" asked Crouch.
"No," said Max, "I think it was a lion."
Crouch got to his feet.
"I don't believe it," said he. "The king of beasts is the greatest coward I know. The most courageous animal in the world is the African buffalo, and after him come the peccary and the wild boar. All the cats are cowards, and the lion the biggest of all. Once I was shooting buzzard on the Zambesi, when I came face to face with a lion, not fifteen paces from me. I had no one with me, and was armed only with a shot-gun. What do you think I did?"
Max laughed. "Ran for it?" he suggested.
"Not a bit!" said Crouch. "That would have been sheer folly; it would have showed the brute I feared him. I just dropped down on all-fours, and walked slowly towards him."