With Flashlight and Rifle ^ 



of long practice, 1 sliould find it clitticult to shoot again 

 if cither of the Hons came tor inc.' 



There I stood, then, with my ritle raisech face to 

 face with the nearer of my two adversaries — shall 1 call 

 them ? — -the old dark-maned lion. A moment passed 

 thus — a moment that seemed like eternity, and that yet, 

 looked back upon now, seems a moment ot (ecstasy. The 

 old lion eyed me, still growling away, but remaining 

 quite still, with his head up and his tail to the ground. 

 The other animal, a lioness apparently, remained lying 

 half-concealed in a clumij ot tall o^rass. The Qfazelle had 

 ■got to within twenty paces ot me and had then tied 

 away at tull speed. 



1 experienced a not unnatural desire tor the appearance 

 of mv men upon the scene, and this now happened, as 

 I gathered trom a shout thev gave me^l did not dare 

 to look round. They were calling out to me what sounded 

 like " Simba. ik^ kali sana ! " (" d hat lion is a very dan- 

 gerous one ! "). I retired backw<u"ds step by step, keeping 

 ready to tire at an\- moment, until at last I found myself 

 again nc^ar m\ men. 1 beckoned to them, l)ut they 

 were not to be induced to advance the seventy paces or 

 so that dixided us until 1 ordered ihem in the; most 

 perem])t()ry wa\' to do so. 



As soon as 1 had l)y me my " BcU'uti Boy," who held 



^ 'I'liL- meclKinisin of the millimetre mat;a/.iiie-rinc a few years ai^o 

 was unreliable accordiiiLi; to my experience and that of man\' sportsmen. 

 Tlierefore I preferred the single-loader. A checlc through the jamming 

 of the cartridge occasionally made the rille useless, and it toolc some 

 time to get it right. 



