286 THE LAND OF THE LION 
stand in them, but had to stoop and bend and even crawl 
to make any progress. Then a lighter patch of jungle 
would cheer you and you could rest for a few moments on 
an ant hill, wipe off your drenched head and hat, clean your 
eye glasses and begin to crawl again. I am leaving syce 
all this time some hundreds of yards outside such cover, 
feeding his mule in the open. The lion spoor turned in and 
out and led us suddenly on to the fresh track of a herd of 
buffalo. We had not got much farther, when close to us 
there sounded a dozen short sharp whistling snorts and then 
a commotion quite nerve-shaking as the herd of great beasts 
crashed away. I should have said that in this dense steam- 
ing tangle there was no wind; little puffs of light air came 
now and then, not enough to cool you but evidently quite 
enough to give you away. ‘This experience was repeated 
twice in the next hour. We drew within a few yards of the 
buffalo, when the same stampede would occur. Once I 
almost kicked a calf that rose from the dense tangle right 
under my feet and then we paused and let her go her way; 
for a calf means a cow, and a cow with calf will charge 
quickly and charge home, and no charge of any beast that 
runs is more determined or deadly. Moreover, this cactus 
thicket was no place to receive a charge in. 
Somehow we succeeded, by no plan of our own, to work 
the herd toward the outskirts of the wood, when they broke 
cover for the open. You could tell they had reached the 
open by the thunder of their hoofs, unaccompanied by the 
heavy crashing they made while in the underbrush. Now 
was our chance. We found ourselves near the edge. My 
two gun bearers, struggling side by side, tore a way through 
the few intervening yards of cover that shut us in. It was 
a desperate moment. Pricked and torn, I was outside, 
sitting panting on the ground, my .450 double rifle resting 
on my knees. But alas, they had had too long a start, so 
I had to content myself with the sight, and it was a splendid 
