THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 187 



We had no difficulty in locating the spot at which he 

 had stopped. He was growling nastily in his throat; 

 loudly, in crescendo, on the intake of the breath; slowly, 

 with a sort of gurgling undertone, as he exhaled. The 

 leaves concealed him. We walked forward to within 

 thirty or forty yards then began to edge to right and 

 left a few inches at a time, trying to get a sight of him. 

 It was very nervous work. We dared not get off bal- 

 ance for a single instant. 



How long exactly this lasted I do not know. The 

 beast was lashing himself up: and his growling and 

 snarling were working up to the point of explosion. 

 Suddenly, so suddenly that for a fleeting instant I was 

 almost paralyzed by the surprise of it, he broke from 

 the cover and launched himself at us. 



This is, in my opinion, the supreme moment in a 

 hunter's life, the moment when, all preliminaries at an 

 end, the lion makes his direct and deadly attack. The 

 Uttle unessentials are brushed aside. Only remains 

 the big primitive idea to fill all a man's mind — ^kill or 

 be killed. The preliminary maneuverings have made 

 him nervous and jumpy enough to scream aloud; 

 but now all his faculties fall into battle array. He 

 becomes deadly cool. Each of the few movements nec- 

 essary to bring his weapon into play he executes with 

 what seems to him an almost deliberate precision. A 

 smouldering, repressed emotion fills all his being; it is 

 not exactly anger, but something like it, rather a feel- 



