XXII 

 THE SECOND LIONESS 



NOW our luck changed most abruptly. We 

 had been riding since early morning over 

 the wide plains. By and by we came to a wide, 

 shallow, flood-water course, carpeted with lava, 

 boulders and scant, scattered brush. Two of us 

 took one side of it, and two the other. At this we 

 were just within hailing distance. The boys wan- 

 dered down the middle. 



Game was here very abundant, and in this broken 

 country proved quite approachable. I saw one 

 Grant's gazelle head, in especial, that greatly 

 tempted me; but we were hunting lions, and other 

 shooting was out of place. Also the prospects for 

 lions had brightened, for we were continually seeing 

 hyenas in packs of from three to six. They lay 

 among the stones, but galloped away at our ap- 

 proach. The .game paid not the slightest attention 

 to these huge, skulking brutes. One passed within 

 twenty feet of a hartebeeste; the latter hardly glanced 

 at him. As the hyena is lazy as well as cowardly, 



176 



