i84 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



Already I had two wounded lions on hand, but 

 evidently it was necessary to acquire another. My 

 bullet checked her nearly short up, from the mere shock 

 of impact. Out of the corner of my eye I had seen the 

 first lion, recovered from his catfit over being hit, 

 swing into his stride when the lioness started. Memba 

 Sasa was snuggled up to my elbow, chanting low- voiced 

 a sort of war song of his own. With my left hand I 

 snatched from him the .405, at the same time passing 

 the Springfield behind my back. He seized it in al- 

 most the same motion with which he handed up the 

 other gun. Good old Memba Sasa ! Here, as always, 

 he played the game! 



When I got back to camp an hour or so later I tried 

 to put down in my notebook exactly the sequence of 

 events. I put down something; but when a few weeks 

 later I start to write this journal more fully, subse- 

 quent recollections that float across my mind, frag- 

 mentary but very vivid, make me doubt whether I can 

 reproduce in my own mind an accurate sequence. 

 Therefore I will not try to put down in what order I 

 shot at those lions, nor where each several shot hit. I 

 do know that I shot at each of them in turn as it seemed 

 necessary to keep them checked. It was a good deal 

 like pushing eager puppies back into a kennel yard, 

 first one, then another, then another, then the first 

 one back at you again. A later count of cartridges ex- 

 pended showed that from the two rifles I fired eighteen 



