"Having a pair of good ears, I did," answered Oscar. "What of it?"
"Why, he is close to us—within a stone's throw of us!" gasped McCann, looking all around for some little hole to crawl into.
"How do you know that? I haven't lived in Africa as long as you have, but I know that you can't tell where a lion is when you hear his roar. It sounds just as loud and distinct when he is half a mile away as it does when he is only a hundred yards from you."
"I wish this one was a hundred miles away," panted McCann, sinking down behind the fore-chest and trembling violently in every limb. "I told you what would happen if you stayed here; and if you lose all your stock don't blame me for it. Don't you know that the water-hole is only two hundred yards away? He is coming there to drink."
"Well, we can't help it, can we? I say, Mack," exclaimed Oscar, a bright idea striking him, "go out there and shoot him when he comes to drink. You have often done such things, you know; and I will give you an extra twenty-five pounds if you will secure a lion's skin for me to take home with me. I can't do it, for if I should find myself within range of one of those fellows I should be so badly frightened that I couldn't cover him with the sights. You will find one of the Express rifles and plenty of cartridges in that case."
McCann was too badly frightened to reply. Indeed, so abject was his terror that, if Oscar had not been possessed of an extraordinary amount of pluck, some of his after-rider's cowardice would have communicated itself to him.
Even a timid person can keep up some show of courage in times of danger when there are brave men around him, but it takes a man of nerve to present a bold front when in the company of poltroons.
Oscar was not frightened; he was only excited—very highly excited, too—for his hands trembled, and his heart beat audibly, as he took his heaviest rifle from its case and pushed a couple of cartridges in the barrels.
"You are never going to shoot at him?" cried McCann.
"You just let me get a fair sight at him, and see if I don't shoot," was Oscar's reply.