THE STORY-TELLER. AN ALGERIAN LION STORY.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 8, 28 July 1883, Page 4

THE STORY-TELL ER. AN ALGERIAN LION STORY.

be sitting, in very good one giori6us ' September evening, in the little moon-lighted garden of the hotel at Algiers is neither here nor there. My companions about the round table, which was garnished with slim bottles, glasses, and piles of cigarettes, f w.ere f alj Frenchmen—three old Algerian cblonists, the "fourth an ex-lieutenant of pf the iiavy, who, had exchanged a life "on theooean wave for tftat of a hunter in three quarters pi the, globe. "Before ainrier I had picked up in the -fpiootyDu/Chailla'g gprilla-book, which I Had never seen before, and my saying _. something about this turned the conrersation in the garden upon wild beasts and the hunting of them. VilSonie/ wonderful stories were told , especially ..by the ex-sailor, though not a L bit more wonderful than many ojne hears fronvold Indian sportsmen. For the matter of that the most extraordinary story I ever heard was told by — of all men in the world — a hare-hunter, who capped therewith a snake - and - elephant narrative, quite unique of its kind. Presently, a abort silence, caused by the uncorking and tasting of a new bottle of Hermitage, was broken by the eldest of the party, who had not said much before. He was a good-looking man of fifty, with beard greyer than his head, and a merry twinkle in his eye. "What 1 he said I shall repeat for the sake, 4 of in the first person, just as he told the story himself. , ; * fhe, adventure of which I am going to tell you, gentlemen, happened to me a good many years ago. It was my first serious interview with a lion. Like most serious things it had a comic side top/ "' I was a young man then, and had been some half-dozen years in Con""Btantine, farming in partnership with a friend, an old colonist, whose acquaintance I "made on board ship coming out from Marseilles. * Our business was corn and cattle raising, and we did very well together, until my partner died of a fever, and /after that I took a dislike to the place. I thought I would shift my ground into this proviuce, Algiers, pusa towards the frontier, and get a grant of government land and make a farm of it. Ho, getting a neighbour to give an eye to things in my absence, I started on my prospecting expedition. ' I say I, but I should say we, f or there were three of us, sworn comrades as ever were. 1 First there was your humble servant ; secondly there was my horse Marengo, and a better never looked through a bridle. He was bred between a Barb sire and an English mare belonging- to the colonel of chasseurs of whom I bought him in town, when his regiment was going home. He stood about fifteen hands two, carried the Barb head, and the rest of his body was all bone and 'muscle. His temper was as good as his courage was high ; me he would followabout like a dog, but he had one failing. and that was an insuperable objection to the close proximity of anyth'ng, except one thing, that stood on four legs. We all have our peculiarities, and this was his. Bipeds were all very well, but multiply the legs by two, and he would let fly immediately, and never missed hit aim 1 Such was Marengo. 'Thirdly, there was Cognac, the faithfulest, the most honest, the oddest, and the wickedest little dog the world "ever saw. He was more like a terrier than anything else, with a short yellow coat, a fox's head, very long ears, and a ■very short tail. The shrillness of hip bark pierced your ears like a knife, but the awfulness of his howl — he always howled if left alone — baffles description. During the fourteen years I had him. he seldom left me day or night. On a journey he would run beside, and when tired get up and sit in my wallet. The great pleasure of his life was to steal behind pe«ple and secretly bite their legs. 'By some mysterious affinity, he and Marengo were friends from the first. They now sleep under the same tree. * Wtll we started, and after goinsr over a good deal of ground, I thought I had decided on a location, and turned my face homewards. My direction was by Alma, to strike the great road that runs under the Atlas eastwards into Constantine. I It was about 8 o'clock one morning when I had been some two hours in the saddle, when I emerged from a narrow valley, or ravine, through which the road ran, on to a sandy plain dotted with bushes and scrub. I I had just laid the reins on Marengo's neck, when suddenly he gave a tremendous shy that pitched me clean off. 'The next minute, with a horrible i roar, a lion sprang right at his head. * I made sure he was on the top of jmc, and so he would have been, but as Marengo wheeled short around like light- 1 ning on his hind legs, the streaming reins caught the brute's fore-paw, and as it were, tripped him, so that he fell sideways on the road. 1 The heavy jerk nearly brought the liorse down,, but the throat lasb broke, the bridle was pulled over his ears, and, recovering ■himself, he darted away among a grove of trees that stood by the wayside. *So intent ,saS, the- lion on the horse t\iHt i h<?pa,id;n6^Muejii^on to me lying j^i^^imj^^^pj^Uong the ground, •^l^^^^l^l^whDm I gave up . idrVloat^fpr^niS^Eance against the lithe brute .among th« trees "seemed hopeless.

' However as luck would have it, there was .an open apace about a dozen yards across. In the centre of this Marengo took his stand, with his tail towards the lion and his head turned sharply back over his shoulder, watching him. • • He stood quite still, except for the slight shifting of his hind feet and lifting his quarters, which I knew meant mischief. 'The lion probably thought so too, for he kept dodging to try and take his opponent by a flank movement. But the old horse knew his game, and pivoting on his forelegs still brought his stern guns to bear on the enemy. 'Soon with a roar the lion made his spring, but Marengo lashed out both heels together, with such excellent judgment of time and distance, that catching him full in the chest he knocked him all of a heap to the ground, where he lay motionless. Then with a neigh of triumph and a flourish of his heels away he galloped through the grove out on to the plain and was safe. ' The lion lay so still that I thought he was dead or at any rate quite ' hors de combat,' and was just running to pick up the bridle and follow Marengo when he sat up on his haunches. This made me stop. * As he sat there with his head loosely wagging from side to side, and mouth half-open, he looked quite vacant and idiotic. ' Suddenly his head stopped wagging, he pricked his ears, aud, by the flash of his eye and changed expression, I knew he had seen mo. ' Only one thing was to be done, and I did it. The outermost tive was large and low-branched. To it I ran and up it I scrambled, and had just perched in a fork about fifteen feet above terra firma as the lion arrived at the bottom. ' Looking up at me with two red-hot coals for eyes, his long nervous tail lashing his sides, every hair on his body turned to wire, and his great claws protruded, he chattered at me as a cat chatters at a bird oufc of reach. His jaws snapped like a steel trap, and hU look was perfectly diabolical. When he was tired of chattering he stood and growled. * Catching sight of the bridle, he walked to it, smelled it, patted it, and then came back and lay down and glared at me. 'My carbine — confound it ! — was slung at my saddle. My only w<apon, beside my hanger, was a pocket pstol, double-barrelled, and what in those days we called a breechloader, that is, the barrels unscrewed to load, and then screwed on again. ' It would have been a handy weapon against a man at close quarteis, for it tinew a good ball — but for a lion ! Besides, the beast was too far off. ' Then the thought flashed into my mind, where was Cognac ? * I supposed he had run aw; y and hidden somewhere. If the lion got sight of him, it would, I knew, be soon all over with the poor little fellow. * All at once there arose, close at hand, an awful and familiar yell. It had a strange muffled tone, but there was no mistaking Cognac's voice. ' Again it came, resonant, long-drawn, and sepulchral. It seemed to come from inside the tree. Where the deuce was he ? * The lion appeared utterly astonished and turned his ears so fnr back to listen that they were almost inside out, when from some hole among the roots of the tree there popped a small yellow head, with long ears. * Down, down, Cognar ? ' I cried in my agony ; 'go back, sir.' ' A cry of delight, cut short by a piteous whine, was his reply, as he spied me, end then dashing fully a yard towards the lion, he barked defiantly. ' With a low growl and ruffling mane, the beast charged at the little dog. ' Back went Cognac into his cave as quick as a rabbit, and stormed at him from inside. ' Thrusting his great paw right down the hole, the lion tried to claw him out. Oh, how I trembled for Cognac ! ' But he kept up such a ceaseless fire of snapping and snarling that it was plain he was either well round a corner or that the hole was deep enough for his safety. ' All the same, to see the great cowardly beast digging away at my poor little dog like that was more than I could stand. Cocking my pistol, I shouted, and as he looked up I fired at his bloodshot eye. He shook his head, and I gave him the other barrel. * With a scream of rage he bounded back. ' Cognac immediately shot forth his head and insulted him with jeering barks. ' But he was not fco be drawn again, and after a bit he lay down further off and pretended to go to sleep. Cognac barked at him till he was tired, and then retired into his castle. * Reloading, I found I had only three bullets left, and concluded to reserve them for a crisis llt was now past noon. To beguile the time, I smoked a pipe or two, sang a song, and cut my name, Cognac's, and Marengo's on the tree, leaving a space for the lion's, which I determined should be Wellington. ' I wished he would go away. * Having some milk in my bottle, I took a drink, and should., have liked to have given some to Cognac. ' The lion began to pant, with his red thorny tongue hanging a foot out of his mouth. He was a mangy and disrepu-table-looking brute as ever I saw. 1 By-and-by he got up and snuffed the air all round him, and then, without as

much as looking at me, walked off and went deliberately down the road. ' Slipping to the ground I caught up Cognac, who had crept out directly, and, after looking carefully round for the lion, was smothering me with caresses.' The lion was turning towards a bushy clump in a hollow about two hundred yards off. That light greeu foliage — willows, water ! Had the cunning brute sniffed it out? ' Anyhow it was a relief to stretch one's legs after sitting six mortal hours on a branch. The lion disappeared round the bushes. I strained my eyes over the plain, but could see nothing moving. Then I gave Cognac a drink of milk and a few bits of bread-cake, for which he was very grateful. Of course it was no use beginning a race against a lion with only two hundred yards start in any number of miles. The tree wns better than that. ' All the same he was a long time ; perhaps he was really gone for good. Bah J there cume his ugly heal round the corner again, making straight for us. ' When he was pretty near T kissed Cognac, and throw a bit more cake into the hole. Then I climbed again to my perch, Cognac retired growling into his fortress, and the benst of a lion mounted guard over us as before. IHe looked quite cool and comfortable, and had evidently had a good drink. 'Another hour, and he was still there. ' Whilst I was wondering how long he really meant to stay, and if I was destined to spend all night on a bough like r monkey, and on very short commons, he got up, and walking quietly to the foot of the tree, withoat uttering a sound, sprang up at me with all his might. 'He was quite a yard short, but I was so startled that I nearly lost my balance. ' His coup having failed, he lay down under the branch I was on, couching his head on his paws as if to hide his mortification. ' Suddenly the thought came into my mind : Why not make a devil and drop it on his back ? I dismissed it as ridiculous, but it ciuno again. As we have all, including our English friend here, been boys, you know what I mean — not a fallen angel, 'out the gunpowder devil. ' Good J Well, it seemed feasible — I would try it. ' I had plenty of powder in my little flask, so pouring some into my hand I moistened it well with ppittle and kneaded away until it came out a tiny Vesuvius of black paste. Then I formed the little crater, which I filled with a few grains of dry powder, and set it carefully on the branch. ' My hands shook so with excitement j I could hanily hold the flint and steel, but I struck ant] struck — the tinder ignited — now, Vesuvius ! * Whiff, whizz ! The lion looked up directly, but I dropped it plump on the back of his neck. For an instant he did not seem to know what had happened ; then, with an angry growl, up he jumped ami tore savagely at the big fiery flea on his back, which sent a shower of sparks into his mouth and nose. 'Again and again he tried, and then raved wildly about, using the most horrible leonine language ; and no wonder, '< for the deril had worked well down among his greasy hair, and must have stung him like a hundred hornets. His back hair and mane burst into a flame, and he shrieked with rage and terror. ' Then he went stark, staring mad, clapped his tail between his legs, laid back his ears, and rushed out of the grove at twenty miles an hour, and disappeared up the ravine. Almost as mad as the lion with joy, and feeling sure he was gone for good, I tumbled down the tree and ran off along the road as hard as I could, with Cognac ! barking at my heels. By and by I had to pull up, for the sun was still very hot, < but I walked as fast as I could, looking ont all the time for Marengo, who would i not, I knew, go very far from his master. A whistle, and whinnying with delight | he trotted up and laid his head on my shoulder. ' In my hurry I had forgotten the bridle, but with my belt and handkerchief I extemporised a halter, tied one ' end round his nose, and catching up Cognac, mounted, and galloped off, defying all the lions in Africa to catch me. 'There were still two hours before sunset to reach the next villr.go, and by hard riding I did it. That we all three of us enjoyed our suppers goes without saying. And that, gentlemen, is my story." We agreed it was wonderful.