THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 185 



shots. Five of these were expended on the first lioness, 

 and four on the big one after the main battle was 

 over. So I must have used nine cartridges to stop the 

 charge. Of these I missed one. 



It was absolutely necessary to keep cool; and I was 

 scared enough to do so; for I realized that if for a 

 minute fraction of an instant I allowed myself to lose 

 my grip, I would be stampeded. After all, in a really 

 hot corner, when a man is in a certain danger of his 

 life, he is too busy to analyze. And it is the man who 

 analyzes who gets rattled. 



At any rate, we shot nine times, we shot pretty fast, 

 and we shot accurately. That is solely because we had 

 to. I used the two rifles alternately, for I had some sort 

 of notion of keeping both magazines full. Memba 

 Sasa went on crooning his war song, and loading like a 

 machine. The second lion collapsed early in the game 

 and about 100 yards away. The lioness came close in, 

 but was crippled for keeps at about fifteen yards. The 

 big lion had stopped sixty yards distant and was sitting 

 on his haunches staring about him. He had been 

 badly hit, but was in no immediate distress. I have a 

 notion that he had not yet located us behind our little 

 sapling, or perhaps was a trifle dazed by the impact of 

 the bullet, and had charged with his two companions, 

 following their lead. 



Now I am perfectly aware that a wounded lion 

 charges. Exceptions are so rare as only to prove the 



