We had been turned in about half an hour when we suddenly heard a bone crack. We slowly rose up and peeped out between the poles across the opening in the rear. Instead of the hyenas we had expected, we saw an old lion. He had a short mane, but he was a big fellow. When we saw him, we all started shaking. It was not so much the fright as it was seeing a big lion just a few feet away.

As we watched, he started eating away on the zebra that had been placed there for bait. Now and then he snarled and growled deeply in his throat. We turned the flashlight on him; but instead of running away, he only crouched down behind the zebra. For several minutes we watched him. After a while he got over his fear of the light and began once more to eat. Mr. Johnson says that he thinks the lions believe the flash of a hand-light or of a flare to be only lightning in the sky. Whatever this one thought, he showed no fear.