THE SECOND LIONESS 



and almost never does his killing, we inferred 

 from the presence of so many a good supply of 

 lion-killed meat. From a tributary ravine we 

 flushed nineteen! 



Harold Hill was riding with me on the right bank. 

 His quick eye caught a glimpse of something beyond 

 our companions on the left side. A glance through 

 the glasses showed me that it was a lion, just dis- 

 appearing over the hill. At once we turned our 

 horses to cross. It was a mean job. We were 

 naturally in a tremendous hurry; and the footing 

 among those boulders and rounded rocks was so 

 vile that a very slow trot was the best we could 

 accomplish. And that was only by standing in 

 our stirrups, and holding up our horses' heads by 

 main strength. We reached the skyline in time to 

 see a herd of game stampeding away from a de- 

 pression a half mile away. We fixed our eyes on 

 that point, and a moment later saw the lion or 

 lioness, as it turned out, leap a little gully and make 

 out the other side. 



The footing down this slope too was appalling, 

 consisting mainly of chunks of lava interspersed with 

 smooth, rounded stones and sparse tufts of grass. 

 In spite of the stones we managed a sort of stumbling 

 gallop. Why we did not all go down in a heap, 

 I do not know. At any rate we had no chance to 



177 



