With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



something for our dinner. Ellis, who went ahead, tried on- 

 some long shots at hartebeests, but did not bring any 

 of them down. Meanwhile I became conscious of the 

 symptoms of an attack of dysentery, which I may men- 

 tion parenthetically I got rid of in a few days by dint 

 of drastic treatment. 



When I had been following Ellis for about half an hour, 

 I saw to my right, at not too long range, a male Thomson's 

 gazelle which I resolved to get. Motioning to my men 

 to remain where they were, I advanced cautiously as best 

 I could. Soon I had got to a distance of 300 yards 

 from my three Askaris, and out of sight of them by 

 reason of several slight swellings of the ground in between. 

 Just as I was on the point of firing at the gazelle, from 

 a distance of about seventy-five paces, my eye was caught 

 by something yellow a hundred paces beyond it which 

 I at once saw to be a lion's head. At the same moment 

 I heard a well-known sound to my right, and turning 

 round quickly saw a large dark-maned, growling lion, 

 standing still in the grass a hundred to a hundred and 

 twenty paces away. To all appearance, he had espied 

 or scented the stalking hunter, and it was lucky he had 

 not come nearer, as he might so. easily have done, tor 

 all my attention had been centred on the gazelle. 



I stood like a man benumbed ! Two lions before me ! 

 It was a large order in the then state of my nerves 

 after my long illness. It was by no means an agreeable 

 situation for me, conscious as I was of my comparative 

 helplessness. I could reckon on only one shot. For 

 subsequent shots I should have to reload, and in spite 



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