Free 09 Lion Adventure by Willard Price

man?’
    Hal laughed. ‘Just waiting to serve you. What’s your trouble?’
    ‘We want to go to Kitani Safari Lodge.’
    ‘I’m afraid you’re out of luck for a while. The Lodge car will come to meet the Nairobi train.’
    ‘When will that be?’
    ‘Two hours from now.’
    ‘Two hours! Young man, we’re American tourists. We’re not used to that kind of service. Two hours indeed! What are we going to do in the meantime?’
    ‘You could sit in the station.’
    ‘We didn’t come to Africa to sit in stations. Isn’t there anything to see around here?’
    ‘Would you be interested in an African village?’
    ‘Of course.’
    “There are two near by. Mombo is just up that path a few minutes’ walk.’
    ‘Will you guide us?’
    ‘Sorry, madam, we have a job to do up here. You’ll be all right.’
    The ladies sputtered a bit over this, looked at their watches, then took the path to Mombo.
    The boys watched them as they crossed the open ground, disappeared into a patch of woodland, and appeared again on the other side climbing the small hill to the village.
    It was at this moment that Roger saw the lion. It emerged from the woods and followed the two women up the trail. They went on, quite unaware of its presence.
    Down the trail rope, like firemen down the pole, slid the two lion-hunters. They snatched rifles from the car and raced across the grassland and through the woods towards the village. Coming out from among the frees they looked anxiously up the path to the hilltop. There was no sign of either ladies or lion.
    ‘Perhaps he’s got them already,’ Roger gasped.
    They puffed their way up the hill and entered the village. They ran between the straw-roofed mud huts and came out into the public dance-ground.
    Here there seemed to be great excitement. A chattering mob of villagers was packed tightly around something that must be of great interest to them.
    The boys pushed through the crowd to the open space in the centre. There they found both the ladies and the lion.
    They leaped in front of the female tourists, prepared to defend them to the death. They levelled their rifles at the possible man-eater. If he made a move towards either the visitors or the villagers, he would pay for it with his life.
    The boys rather expected that they would be greeted with cheers and rejoicing because they had arrived just in time to kill a dangerous wild beast. But what they heard was a great swell of angry voices. Then a big black stepped between them and slapped down their guns.
    ‘No, no,’ he said. ‘You no shoot. If you kill this lion we kill you.’
    Hal was puzzled. ‘What’s so special about this lion?’
    The big black fellow, who appeared to be the headman of the village, replied, ‘He good lion. He belong here. Just like dog, only better. He take care of us. If bad buffalo break in, he kill buffalo. Many forest pigs come, destroy our garden, he kill pigs.’
    The boys looked at each other, shamefaced. They felt pretty silly. They had come barging in like heroes to rescue these poor people, only to find that the people didn’t want to be rescued. Even the ladies didn’t appreciate their services.
    ‘You don’t seem to understand lions very well,’ said the lady named Patricia.
    ‘I suppose you know a good deal about them,’ said Hal politely.
    ‘Yes, we do. We’ve just been to Kruger - there we drove around among the lions and they didn’t do a thing. Our guide drove the car up to within fifteen feet of them and we just sat there and looked at them and they paid no attention to us. They yawned, and they rolled around on their backs with their paws in the air just like kittens, and some of them even went to sleep. They’re just dear, adorable pussycats, that’s all.’
    ‘Did you step out of the car?’
    ‘No, that isn’t allowed. But I don’t see why not. They were the gentlest, sweetest things - they wouldn’t hurt a fly.’
    ‘I’m afraid you are too trusting,’ Hal