CH. viii] A CHARGING, LION 191 



lungs and the big bloodvessels of the heart. Painfully 

 he recovered his feet, and tried to come on, his ferocious 

 courage holding out to the last ; but he staggered, and 

 turned from side to side, unable to stand firmly, still 

 less to advance at a faster pace tlian a walk. He had 

 not ten seconds to live, but it is a sound principle to 

 take no chances witli lions. Tarlton hit him with his 

 second bullet, probably in the shoulder, and with my 

 next shot I broke his neck. 1 had stopped liim when 

 he was still a hundred yards away, and certainly no 

 finer sight could be imagined than that of this great 

 maned lion as he charged. Kermit gleefully joined us 

 as we walked up to the body ; only one of our followers 

 liad been able to keep up with him on his two-miles 

 run. He had had a fine view of the charge, from one 

 side, as he ran up, still three hundred yards distant ; he 

 could see all the muscles play as the lion galloped in, 

 and then everything relax as he fell to the shock of my 

 bullet. 



The Hon M^as a big old male, still in his prime. 

 Between uprights his lengtli was nine feet four inches, 

 and his weight four hundred and ten pounds, for he was 

 not fat. We skinned him and started for camp, which 

 we reached after dark. There was a thunderstorm in 

 the south-west, and in the red sunset that burned behind 

 us the rain-clouds tinned to many gorgeous hues. Then 

 daylight tailed, the clouds cleared, and, as we made our 

 way across the formless plain, the half moon hung high 

 overhead, strange stars shone in the t)rilliant heavens, 

 and the Southern Cross lay radiant above the sky-line. 



Our next camp was pitched on a stony plain, by a 

 winding stream-bed still containing an occasional rush- 

 fringed pool of muddy water, fouled by the herds and 

 flocks oT the numerous Masai, Game was plentiful 



