DISPATCH RIDER AND A LION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2919, 3 November 1916, Page 7

DISPATCH RIDER AND A LION

——-4 NIGHT IN SAFETY UP A TREE. - (Prom the "Daily Mail.") . Kondoa Irangi (German E. Africa)'. We were sitting .at .dinner , when an orderly came ill with a talggram for our host, Lieutenant Blackwell; who commands the Corps of Dispatch Riders. The message was merely to say that one of his men who had left here at sunrise the previous morning had ar-rived-at Moslii, in the north-east of the Colony, at three o'clock the following afternoon —33 hours, including stoppages at night and for meals, for a distance of over 200 miles over roads which, consist to a large extent of sand patches, hills, and hard going generally. These dispatch riders have performed wonders of endurance and have won through hardships that cannot bs put down on paper. Singly they go off for a 50 or 100 miles' rido through de-~ solate country infested with wild beasts. Abd should they be out when night falls then all there is to do is to shin up a treo and wait for morning._ One man had orders to carry a dispatch which was to be handed over to two riders.who had left two hours previously. He was riding along very fast in the semi-darkness when suddenly he saw a lion across tho road. He managed to swerve a little, but grazed the hon's hindquarters, and struck his tau. He then ran smack into a stone, was thrown from his mount, and strained his ankle. The lion had not made off* but had turned round to seo what manner of beast had hit him. While ho hesitated the dispatch rider got up a tree—there had been no time to unship his rifle. , . . , .. The man stayed on his risky perch all uirrht, without food or covering, soaked to° the skin by tropical ram. When morning 'came tho lion had gone, but the road was like a miniature lake, so that riding was out of the question. But the dispatch had to be delivered, so on he limped as best he could, every step a pang of pain. A little way along tho road he struck a' wireless' camp, where he found the two men he was seeking. He handed his dispatch over, but it was some days before he could return. . ■ ~ , 3 Another dispatch rider was charged by a rhino, which luckily stopped short on account of tho unearthly yells ot a couple of troopers who were witnesses .of the encounter. .