CHAPTER NINE.
A LION "COUCHANT." They had not proceeded an hundred steps when an object appeared before them that caused all three to draw bridle suddenly and simultaneously.
That object was a lion! He was couched upon the plain directly in the path they intended to take--the very same path by which they had come! How was it they had not seen him before?
He was under the lee of a low bush; but, thanks to the locusts, this bush was leafless, and its thin naked twigs formed no concealment for so large a creature as a lion.
His tawny hide shone conspicuously through them.
The truth is, he had not been there when the horsemen passed towards the kraal.

He had just fled from among the carcasses, on seeing them approach; and had skulked around the walls, and then run to their rear.
He had executed this manoeuvre to avoid an encounter--for a lion reasons as a man does, though not to the same extent.

Seeing the horsemen come that way, his reasoning powers were strong enough to tell him that they were not likely to return by the same path.

It was more natural they should continue on.

A man, ignorant of all the preceding events connected with their journey would have reasoned much in the same way.
If you have been at all observant, you have seen other animals--such as dogs, deer, hares, or even birds--act just as the lion did on this occasion.
Beyond a doubt the intellectual process described passed through the mind of this lion; and he had skulked round to shun an encounter with the three travellers.
Now a lion will not always act so--though he will in five cases out of six, or oftener.