A LION STORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9617, 15 September 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

A LION STORY.

Thekic have been no such lion stories eoing since Mr. Solous' big volume came out as will be found in a readable little book, " A Nobody in Masbonaland," which Mr. Vickers has recently published for a well-known South African journalist, Mr. C. E. Finlason, of Pretoria. Here is one :— A UON AT UTS BEDSIDE. A ghastly story is that told by a prospector in the Manica country ; of course, it is now one or two years old. Billy Jones was a careless, devil-may-care fellow, who had a way of going on ahead of his party shooting game. I often used to warn Billy against going out so far by himself, and sleoping by himself all night as he often did. But he didn't give a curse for lions, and never could be brought to believe thab lions were capable of attacking a white man. " I wish the brutes had the pluck," he often said, for he had promised his girl in Capetown a necklace of lion's claws, and was keen about killing lions. Well, one day, when we had not had a bit of meat for two days, ho started on ahead. In the evening we stopped at a river, and concluded that Billy had camped for the night farther on. In the morning we started on again, and we had not gone ten miles when we came across a still smoking fire. " Hullo," cried Bryne, "Billy's left his billy, behind." Just, then I found Billy's rifle about twenty yards away from the fire with an exploded cartridge in the breech. I felt somehow that something had gone wrong with my old chum, and we all scattered with the idea of finding or following up his spoor. In half a minute Bryne cried out, " Ouch !" just as if he had stepped upon a snake; and when I got to where he was standing I saw him glaring ab one of Billy's boots. "Man," he whispered, " there's the foot in it still!" And sure enough the poor fellow's foot was there. There was blood all over the place, and the spoor of a big lion could easily be seen on the soft ground. We followed up bho spoor, and found half of poor Billy's head near a tree. The tall green grass all round was crushed down, showing that the lion had been lying there. It was the top of Billy's head that was left, and both the eyes were open and seemed to bo looking ab something on the ground fifty yards away. We buried the poor remnants under . a big wild plum tree, and spent a week in j tracking that lion ; but we never came up with it.