300 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



when she slowed down, her head sank to the 

 ground, and she fell dead. 



"Instantly we turned our rifles upon father's 

 wounded lioness. She was more than three hun- 

 dred yards away by this time, and making to- 

 ward a clump of thick thorn-bushes. Before she 

 reached it, however, a bullet from father's rifle 

 struck her in the hind leg. She disappeared in 

 the thicket, badly wounded. 



"The back of the black-maned lion had been 

 injured by the first shot fired, and during the 

 fight with the other two he had been growling 

 and snarling and trying hard to reach us, but 

 we saw that there was no danger to be feared 

 from him. 



"Father suggested that, since he had tried 

 his best to make a meal of me, it was my right 

 to finish him; so I advanced to close range and 

 planted a ball in his heart. Even then it was 

 several seconds before he threw up his head, 

 gave several gasps, and fell dead. 



"A wounded lion in a bush is a dangerous 

 adversary, even in broad daylight, and in the 

 dusk of the evening a man would be foolhardy 

 indeed to attack one, so we decided to let that 

 one remain until morning. 



