Jack could hardly tell afterwards how it all happened, for he felt that he must have gone off fast asleep from utter exhaustion, but his sleep could not have lasted above an hour, for when he awoke with a start the sun had only just dipped down out of sight, and there was a faint glow still amongst the trees.
All was very silent and he was drowsy, but a feeling of alarm now began to oppress him, and he wondered whether Chicory and the General would soon be there.
His next thought was about his rifle, which still lay across his knees; and feeling that he might at any moment be called upon to use it in his defence, he cocked both barrels, and was then about to get up and shout, when, not a hundred yards away down a broad vista of the open forest, he saw something which made him present his rifle and then sit motionless, with his heart going thump, thump, heavily beneath his ribs.
For there, stealing softly along, with its belly almost sweeping the ground, was a huge lion—not a smooth, maneless lion, such as the two they had slain, but a big-muzzled, rugged-maned, hairy monster, such as he was familiar with in pictures—the natural history lion that he had seen a hundred times.
To have attempted to fire would have been madness at that distance, and it was evident that he was at present in no danger, for seated as he was in the shadow, with his back to the trunk of a great tree, the lion had not seen him.
The next moment Jack saw why he passed unnoticed.
The lion was cautiously stalking some dark animal that was softly gliding through the bushes, following it step by step awaiting the time to spring.
It was an interesting sight, though painful; and Jack thought of his brother’s adventure with the serpent, and whether he was not in duty bound to save this animal from its pursuer as his brother saved the gazelle.
The next moment Jack’s heart seemed to stand still, for the dark animal passed out of the bushes into sight, and he saw that it was no wild animal, but poor Chicory, bending down, and evidently carefully tracing some spoor, perhaps his brother’s, while the lion was following to strike him down.
It was a terrible position; for young as he was in woodcraft, Jack had not yet acquired the firmness in critical moments that comes to the old hunter, and for the time he felt paralysed.