There
were the four of them within eight feet of me, growling and quarrelling,
rending and tearing, and crunching poor Kaptein's bones; and there I
lay shaking with terror, and the cold perspiration pouring out of me,
feeling like another Daniel come to judgment in a new sense of the
phrase. Presently the cubs had eaten their fill, and began to get
restless. One went round to the back of the waggon and pulled at
the Impala buck that hung there, and the other came round my way and
commenced the sniffing game at my leg. Indeed, he did more than that,
for, my trouser being hitched up a little, he began to lick the bare
skin with his rough tongue. The more he licked the more he liked it, to
judge from his increased vigour and the loud purring noise he made. Then
I knew that the end had come, for in another second his file-like tongue
would have rasped through the skin of my leg--which was luckily pretty
tough--and have drawn the blood, and then there would be no chance
for me. So I just lay there and thought of my sins, and prayed to the
Almighty, and thought that, after all, life was a very enjoyable thing.
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