Untrodden Paths 35 



crying: "Five other lions have just passed by." My rising 

 doubts were instantly quelled, for ten hands pointed simul- 

 taneously to a gentle declivity in the direction of the acanthus 

 thicket, and I actually saw the heads of two lions emerging from 

 the grass. Ordering an Askari to go on skinning, I made ready 

 for a fresh pursuit. A wild hunt commenced, the lion always 

 trotting in front and I following rapidly. Thus one quarter of 

 an hour followed the other. My strength became exhausted, and 

 I was about to abandon my efforts when, two hundred paces 

 distant, I saw another half-grown beast looking round ferociously 

 at me. Although I was in such a breathless condition that I 

 could scarcely hold the rifle steady, I managed to let him have 

 a bullet. Drawing himself up and lashing with his tail, he 

 fled, snarling irascibly, into the acanthus scrub. With him were 

 two females. 



The two other lionesses had separated. I decided to make 

 an attempt to overtake them. After following the tracks for two 

 hours, during which time I occasionally caught glimpses of them, 

 I saw them both exposed on the distant summit of the hill gazing 

 down towards me — a picture which Kuhnert knows so excellently 

 how to portray. The sharply defined outlines of the beasts were 

 set in strong relief ; two dark silhouettes against the deep red 

 background of the evening sky. Summoning up all my self- 

 possession, I took careful aim and fired. The nearest lioness 

 fell, and vanished reeling in the grass. I fired again, and the 

 second bullet likewise found its mark. We found the first beast 

 lying dead in the bush a few feet away, but the approaching 

 darkness forbade a search for the other, who was not seen again. 



We now returned with our booty to where we had left the first 

 lion I had killed. There we met Schubotz and Wintgens in the 

 same exuberant frame of mind as I was. After some futile 

 attempts Wintgens had finally succeeded with a master shot in 

 stretching out a lioness whilst she was bounding across a burnt-out 

 patch of ground. Schubotz had not managed to get another 

 shot. Even though results might have been greater, we were in 

 high spirits in camp that evening ; and more than one of the 



