THE LAST FRONTIER 



on the middle of his chest, and uttered a fervent 

 wish to myself that B. would hurry up. In about 

 ten seconds the muzzle of his rifle poked over my 

 shoulder, so I resigned the job. 



At B.'s shot the lion fell over, but was immediately 

 up and trying to get at us. Then we saw that his 

 hind quarters were paralyzed. He was a most mag- 

 nificent sight as he reared his fine old head, roaring 

 at us full mouthed so that the very air trembled. 

 Billy had a good look at a lion in action. B. took up 

 a commanding position on an ant hill to one side 

 with his rifle levelled. F. and I advanced slowly side 

 by side. At twelve feet from the wounded beast we 

 stopped, F. unlimbered the kodak, while I held the 

 bead of the 405 between the lion's eyes, ready to 

 press trigger at the first forward movement, however 

 slight. Thus we took several exposures in the two 

 cameras. Unfortunately one of the cameras fell 

 in the river the next day. The other contained but 

 one exposure. While not so spectacular as some of 

 those spoiled, it shows very well the erect mane, ihe 

 wicked narrowing of the eyes, the flattening of the 

 ears of an angry lion. You must imagine, further- 

 more, the deep rumbling diapason of his growling. 



We backed away, and B. put in the finishing shot. 

 The first bullet, we then found, had penetrated the 

 kidneys, thus inflicting a temporary paralysis. 



294 



