332 A SPORTING TRIP THROUGH ABYSSINIA chap. 



towards us to the left. Swinging round at once, I fired 

 the second barrel at her, as she was retreating into the 

 grass. Then my men more or less lost their heads : 

 AH, instead of handing me the loaded paradox, kept 

 pointing at something, forgetting that to load a rifle in a 

 hurry, without taking one's eyes off a spot, is almost 

 impossible, Hyde, to make matters worse, was pulling 

 at my arm to try and make me see what they saw, while 

 both the Abyssinians began to talk. All this, of course, 

 only took a few seconds of time, but I expected a charge 

 every moment, and, when at last I had shaken my arm 

 free from Hyde and loaded the rifle, I was only in time 

 to see a young lion bound away into the grass. Running 

 forward, I saw the lioness limping off with a broken 

 shoulder. Another shot, however, brought her down, 

 and, pushing on cautiously (for I did not know what had 

 become of the first beast fired at), I reached the other 

 side of the grass without seeing anything. So I turned 

 back, gave the lioness a finishing shot, and then went to 

 the spot at which I had first fired ; here I found my 

 bullet had embedded itself in a tough root of the tree, 

 showing that I had missed my quarry by a couple of 

 inches! Meanwhile Ali had been adding insult to injury 

 by asking why I had not fired at the lion, when he stood 

 looking at us, and seemed rather surprised when I rated 

 him and Hyde for not carrying out my orders, which 

 were to exchange my rifle for a loaded one as soon as I 

 had fired, so that I could keep my eyes always on the 

 game. Leaving the two Abyssinians with the carcase, 

 we followed on the tracks, but these soon separated and 

 we lost them on stony ground. We next made a cast 



