MY SOMALI BOOK 143 



side and then stiffening like a pointer's, infallible indica- 

 tion of a coming charge ; and this in a silence more 

 ominous than any growl. 



I turned to Abdilleh for the '400, but instead of 

 handing it to me, he fired both barrels rapidly. She 

 shrank at the first shot in a way that showed she was 

 badly hit, and then bounded into an adjoining clump 

 of grass. There might be trouble to come, but for the 

 moment I felt I was well out of an awkward situation. 

 For it had been awkward : an empty gun in my hand, 

 and a wounded lioness only fifteen yards away ! Of 

 course, at the moment I was mad with Abdilleh for 

 firing instead of handing me the rifle ; but, as he said, 

 the distance was so small and she so obviously meant 

 mischief that he was doubtful whether I should have 

 had time to get rid of the Paradox, take the rifle and 

 get in my shot, if she had charged the next moment, 

 as was practically certain she would have done. I 

 might have done it, but it would have been a very 

 close thing, and under the circumstances he was quite 

 justified in acting as he did, seeing that for the moment 

 she offered him an easy shot. At the same time, 

 though he could use a rifle, Abdilleh was far from 

 being a practised shot, and if his first bullet had not 

 been fortunately placed (his second was a miss) the 

 result might, almost certainly would, have been 

 disastrous. For as it turned out — a fact of which we 

 were not at first aware — this lioness was the most 

 dangerous of foes, a mother with young cubs in the 

 grass before us, while my bad shooting had merely 

 hurt her enough to enrage. 



However, to go on with the story. The new patch 



