280 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 



reach him ; so that at last they got between him and 

 the ten honesses and cubs, the big Hon coming first, the 

 horsemen next, and then the lesser lions, all headed the 

 same way. As the horse-hoofs thundered closer, the 

 lion turned to bay. Kermit — whose horse had once 

 fallen with him in the chase — and Tarlton leaped off 

 their horses, and Kermit hit the lion with his first shot, 

 and, as it started to charge, mortally wounded it with a 

 second bullet. It turned and tried to reach cover, and 

 Tarlton stopped it with a third shot, for there was no 

 time to lose, as they wished to tackle the other lions. 

 After a sharp gallop, they rounded up the lionesses and 

 cubs. Kermit killed one large cub, which they mistook 

 for a lioness ; wounded a lioness, which for the tiine 

 being escaped ; killed another with a single bullet 

 from his "30 to '40 Winchester — for the others he used 

 his '405 Winchester — and hit the third as she crouched 

 facing him at two hundred yards. She at once came 

 in at full speed, making a most determined charge. 

 Kermit and Tarlton were standing near their horses. 

 The lioness came on with great bounds, so that 

 Kermit missed her twice, but broke her shoulder high 

 up when she was but thirty yards off". She fell on her 

 head, and, on rising, galloped, not at the men, but at 

 the horses, who, curiously enough, paid no heed to her. 

 Tarlton stopped her with a bullet in the nick of time, 

 just before she reached them, and with another bullet 

 Kermit killed her. Two days later they came on the 

 remaining cubs and the wounded lioness, and Kermit 

 killed tiie latter ; but they let the cubs go, feeling it 

 unsportsmanlike to kill them — a feeling which I am 

 by no means certain I share, for lions are scourges not 

 only to both wild and tame animals, but to man 

 himself. 



