HUNTING ELEPHANT AND RIDING LION 179 
to make a good shot, and the only thing to do was to get 
on firmer ground just as fast as he could, and keep that 
single cartridge till the lion was a few yards away. My 
lucky shot had saved the situation, which otherwise might 
have been serious indeed, for though he would probably 
have stopped the lion, no man, no matter how steady his 
nerves, cares to face a charging beast with one cartridge. 
We walked up together to the little grass patch that 
now completely hid our game. We shouted and waited, 
no sign. The lion was lying low. ‘To enter it was not for 
a moment to be thought of. The reeds and grass grew 
seven feet high, and he would, though mortally wounded, 
have pulled someone down. As I said before, he had crawled 
into a narrow bend of the stream, and as we looked the 
situation rapidly over, I noticed that on the other side of 
the water only a few yards away the bank rose sharply for 
a few feet. Could we gain that point of vantage, I thought 
we had him at our mercy. Would he let us go quietly by 
him, within a few yards, wade the stream, and look into his 
Jair from the other side? We formed our gunboys silently 
into line across this possible line of retreat, and ourselves 
stepped through the edge of the high cover down into the 
water which here was almost five feet deep and running 
strong. I must admit that for myself I was profoundly 
relieved when I found my footing at last on the other bank. 
free from that strangling grass that hid everything at three 
feet distance. Here I was my own man again. Here, 
indeed, all risk was over, both for ourselves and our men, 
and we had him, at last, under our guns not ten yards away, 
and in a position from which we could at least partly see 
him. The moment we stood on the little elevation, and 
had our heads at last above the grass, the lion saw us, and 
made his one last hopeless effort to come on. He rose, 
swaying from side to side, and growling deeply. I fin- 
ished him at once, with a shot in the chest. 
