"Oh, I'll take them with pleasure," was the reply; "a rhinoceros and two lions will make a very good start for a show—worth sixpence at least to go inside to see them; and just imagine how I can stand up before the audience and say, 'Ladies and Gentlemen: These are animals that I caught myself in Africa;' and then I can go on and tell all about how I had a desperate fight with the lion and lioness from whom I took the cubs. I can remove my glove and show this scar—which was made by a wait-a-bit thorn—as the scar of the wound that the lion gave me. Oh, I think I shall have a splendid menagerie, and I am very much obliged to you."
CHAPTER XXV.
LADIES HUNTING HIPPOS—MISS BOLAND OVERBOARD AMONG THE
CROCODILES—DISCUSSING A CHANGE OF BASE.
I was very glad that Jack made the offer and enabled us to get rid of the little brutes. Harry's face was covered with frowns because Jack had got ahead of him in giving our prizes away. I do not believe we should have kept the lions many days—certainly not after leaving that place and trekking away elsewhere. A pet lion is not an agreeable companion for a gentleman, and as for taking them back to Durban in the hope of selling them, the scheme would have been ridiculous. I had no idea that the ladies would keep the creatures long, but they would certainly enjoy the possession of them more than we should have done.
After a brief halt at our camp the whole party proceeded to the river, where the hippopotamus-hunt was to take place. We left our horses half a mile or so back from the water, in the care of the Kafirs, and finished our journey on foot.
The boat was exactly where we had left it. Jack brought it around to a convenient place at the bank, and then said he could take one of the ladies with his native paddlers, but was doubtful about taking the two of them.
There was an amiable contention between our fair visitors as to which should have the first opportunity of spearing a hippo. It was finally settled that Mrs. Roberts should take the first chance, and she thereupon stepped into the boat and followed Jack's instructions. I should have remarked before that they came, not on their side-saddles, but on their man-fashion saddles, and were habited in their hunting-costumes, which have already been described. It was a visit of work and not of ceremony, and they were dressed accordingly.
The boat pulled out into the stream, where the heads of several hippos were now and then visible, and also the heads of an equal or greater number of crocodiles. The rest of us remained on the bank, walking slowly downward, so as to keep constantly opposite the boat, which drifted with the current, aided now and then by a perfectly silent stroke of a paddle. Jack had equipped Mrs. Roberts with a hippopotamus-spear, and stood close at her side, peering over the bow of the boat.
It was some time before a good chance was presented for using the spear; several hippos came up and looked at the boat, but somehow they seemed a little wary, and did not allow their curiosity to get altogether the better of their judgment. But all things come to him who waits, and the hippos came in due time to our waiting friends. A good-sized hippo paddled up alongside the boat, and then turned, as if he would cross its bow. As he did so his back was just at the surface, and presented a splendid mark for the spears.
"Now!" said Jack to Mrs. Roberts; and she thrust the spear with all her force into the back of the amphibious animal below her. At the same time Jack launched another spear into the back of the beast, to make entirely certain that he was secure.