THE LAST FRONTIER 



phy, when to us came Mavrouki and a porter, quite 

 out of breath, but able to tell us that they had been 

 scouting around and had seen two of the lions. 

 Then, instead of leaving one up a tree to watch, both 

 had come pell-mell to tell us all about it. We 

 pointed this out to them, and called their attention 

 to the fact that the brush was wide, that lions are 

 not stationary objects, and that, unlike the leopard, 

 they can change their spots quite readily. How- 

 ever, we remounted and went to take a look. 



Of course there was nothing. So we rode on, 

 rather aimlessly, weaving in and out of the bushes 

 and open spaces. I think we were all a little tired 

 from the long day and the excitement, and hence a 

 bit listless. Suddenly we were fairly shaken out of 

 our saddles by an angry roar just ahead. Usually 

 a lion growls, low and thunderous, when he wants, 

 to warn you that you have gone about far enough; 

 but this one was angry all through at being followed 

 about so much, and he just plain yelled at us. 



He crouched near a bush forty yards away, and 

 was switching his tail. I had heard that this was 

 a sure premonition of an instant charge, but I had 

 not before realized exactly what "switching the 

 tail" meant. I had thought of it as a slow sweeping 

 from side to side, after the manner of the domestic 

 cat. This lion's tail was whirling perpendicularly 



186 



