ACROSS THE MAU ESCARPMENT 77 
the line. Hobbling along with my stick, my gunbearer behind 
me with the rifle, nerves were, naturally, a bit strung up,, 
and when some bush buck or reed buck would crash through 
the bushes a few feet away, the line so far as I could see it 
would bend and sway, sticks would go up in the air; soon 
as the porters saw it was nothing, they would steady again. 
Presently I could hear from the sound of beating sticks. 
and voices that the line had beat backward in the middle, 
and was no longer straight but bowed, with either wing so. 
pressing forward, that if anything happened the men would 
shoot into each other. If I had had any experience of beating 
out such a place, I might have known that it would prove 
impossible to keep even well-drilled men in a straight line. 
But this was my first and my last attempt at such a job. 
A moment later there came a quite appalling grunting 
roar right in the middle of the line, where J. J. W. and his 
Somali gunbearer and his hunter were. It seemed only a 
few feet off, it so pervaded the whole dark place, and my 
heart stood still. I knew the lion was not dead by a long 
way, and that we were all embarked on a foolish business. 
Then a wild fusillade from all sides. The men shot in every 
direction, some into the air, some into the ground. Poor 
Momba, the hunter’s Kikuyu gunbearer, said afterward, 
that the askari next him “shot at the birds.”” Nobody 
seemed to know where he shot, and nobody, of course, hit 
the lion. I only knew that one of them nearly shot me, for 
a bullet buried itself in the bank at my side. I counted 
eighteen shots, and there may have been more. Then roar 
on roar and shot on shot. Four or five from heavy guns: 
coming in quick succession. It seemed an age to me, who: 
could see nothing, but it was really all over in two minutes. 
Then silence for a moment! Then a loud cheer. And 
then another loud call for water, and my heart sank, for 
I knew someone must have been either shot or mauled. 
I sent my gunbearer back to where my mule was tied, for 
