“You don’t mean it,” exclaimed George.
“I mean just this: if Eugene is brave enough to stay beside that spring to-night, I am,” returned Archie.
“So am I,” said Fred.
“Oh, of course,” laughed George. “If one of you three go, you’ll all go. Well, I shall stay contentedly by the fire, and about the time you hear the roar of the first lion that is coming to the spring to drink, you’ll wish yourselves safe beside the fire, too.”
“Do you really mean to go, Eugene?” asked Archie, in a low tone.
“Yes, I do, if you two fellows will go with me. We don’t expect to kill a lion or even shoot at one, but we’ll have something to brag of. When we get home we can say we performed a feat that none of the others dared attempt.”
“How big is one of them critters, anyhow?” asked Dick Lewis. “Is he much bigger’n a painter?”
“Why a panther wouldn’t make an ear for a lion,” replied Eugene. “Well, yes, perhaps he would, too,” he added, seeing that the trapper’s eyes were fastened searchingly upon him; “but he wouldn’t make more than a half a dozen good mouthfuls. Will you go with us, Dick?”
“Nary time,” exclaimed the trapper, quickly. “A critter that can make such a bellerin’ as that one did that stormy night a few weeks back, is something I don’t want to see.”
Our three friends, Archie, Fred, and Eugene, had something to talk about now—something in which they alone were interested; so they fell back behind the others, and during the rest of the forenoon were left almost entirely to themselves. Whether or not they expected to derive any pleasure from their projected enterprise, other than to be found in talking about it after it was all over, it is hard to tell. They tried their best to make themselves and one another believe that they did, and repeatedly expressed the hope that Uncle Dick would not interpose his authority, and spoil all their sport by ordering them to stay in the camp. They expected that he would have something to say about it during the noon halt, and so he did, but he did not put his veto on the project. He had done such a thing more than once during his young and foolish days, he said, and although he could not be easily induced to do it again, he would not like to sell his experience at any price. It was going to be a beautiful night for sport. It would be as dark as pitch, and that was just what they wanted. He hoped that they would bag lions enough so that each one of the party could have a skin to remind him of his sojourn in Africa, and of that night in particular. Frank talked much in the same strain, and added that he thought he had enough arsenical soap left to preserve a few of the heads of the lions, if the hunters would cut them off and bring them to the camp. The three friends were not prepared for this, and they did not know what to make of it. They had looked for opposition, and instead of that received encouragement and offers of assistance. They said nothing until the journey was resumed, and then they fell behind to compare notes.