THE EAHAD EIVER 189 



been the victim of a delusion, and had merely fired 

 into a peculiar effect of the moonlight in the grass. 



March 2lst. At daybreak an undoubted lion 

 roared within half a mile, but no more lions, real or 

 imaginary, showed themselves during the night. I 

 then descended from the machan, and easily found 

 blood on the trail of the big lioness, which I 

 traced for 30 yards in the high grass, and then 

 decided to await reinforcements. I totally failed 

 to trace the smaller lioness, even when my men 

 arrived to assist me. At the same time crows had 

 made a great disturbance in that quarter at day- 

 break, and I was absolutely certain that she had been 

 hit. We first of all, therefore, attended to the 

 obvious blood trail, which led through waist-high 

 grass, until I saw the lioness dead within four yards 

 of me, some 70 yards from where I had shot her. We 

 then returned to the smaller lioness, and after con- 

 siderable search the local shikari Abdur Rahman did 

 find a speck of blood. We followed up the trail, speck 

 after speck, and finally F. M. saw this lioness lying 

 dead within four yards of him. The grass was 

 shoulder-high, and a nastier place for retrieving 

 lions could hardly be conceived. In fact, I con- 

 gratulated myself that I had not taken a risky shot 

 the previous evening. This second lioness illustrated 

 the weakness of small-bore rifles. The brute had a 

 broken shoulder and was raked fore and aft, but it 



