170 THE LAND: OF THE LION 
two men ahead of me in view. We started at a hard gallop 
but now there is a wild yell in front and the ponies are going 
at very topmost speed. They see the lions before them. 
The bushes thicken, the grass is rank and high. I must 
keep near those ponies at any cost, so in go the spurs and 
we tear along. ‘There were three lions or lionesses — we 
had not a clear enough view to tell which. But now there 
is but one ahead. Where on earth are the other two? 
Where did they turn? Where do they crouch? This 
thickening grass hides anything, and everything! No 
insurance company in the world would grant you one of those 
delightfully comprehensive accident policies, if they but 
knew what might lie waiting you, all unseen, in that yellow, 
waving grass. 
My plucky mount by now is almost spent — we have 
raced for more than a mile and a half. Here I am on the 
brow of a sudden descent, and no man or horse in sight. 
I saw them not two hundred yards in front, less than half 
a mile back, and expected to catch sight of them each 
moment, as I forced the mule along. The lions have 
swerved to right or left suddenly, and I have swept by the 
lot. Where are the lions now? And where are my men? 
I don’t fancy one bit riding back through that all-hiding 
grass, and so dismount. Just in time, as it happens, I 
hear shouting far to my left, and as I do, there, through the 
grass, not forty yards away, are two big ears moving. I 
look beyond and on either side of those ears, anxiously, 
I confess, for a moment. ‘The tall grass is all round me. 
This is not the sort of place, by any means, I should have 
chosen to make my accounting with three thoroughly 
angry lionesses. Are there one, two, three, ten? Who 
can tell? Those ears come steadily nearer, just those ears 
marking a broad head, which remains invisible. “They are 
equi distant. The lion is squarely head on. One thing at © 
least is sure. I must kill the beast with one shot. Now 
