54 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



Although I began to think that the imagina- 

 tion of the men had got the better of them, I 

 was determined to be on the safe side. It would 

 be unwise to empty the magazine of my rifle, 

 for the brute, if she were there, might take that 

 opportunity to charge out at me. I therefore 

 started to reload. 



I had placed one cartridge in the magazine 

 and was about to insert another, that would give 

 me the full complement of five, when, with a 

 deep growl, the lioness sprang through the 

 thicket directly in front of me. Only her head 

 and fore quarters were visible as she paused 

 a few seconds, snarling viciously and looking 

 about. Realising that there was no time for 

 further reloading, I pressed the snap that sent 

 a cartridge into the rifle chamber, and threw 

 the rifle to my shoulder just as the tawny brute 

 whirled and charged for one of the porters off 

 to my right. 



She had covered about thirty feet when my 

 first bullet caught her back of the fore shoulder 

 too far back to strike her heart. She wheeled 

 about so suddenly that if her tail had been a 

 whip-lash it would have cracked in the air, and 

 with a savage, snarling growl came straight at me. 



