With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



of long practice, I should find it difficult to shoot again 

 if either of the lions came for me. 1 



There I stood, then, with my rifle raised, face to 

 face with the nearer of my two adversaries shall I call 

 them ? the old dark-maned lion. A moment passed 

 thus a moment that seemed like eternity, and that yet, 

 looked back upon now, seems a moment of ecstasy. The 

 old lion eyed me, still growling away, but remaining 

 quite still, with his head up and his tail to the ground. 

 The other animal, a lioness apparently, remained lying 

 half-concealed in a clump of tall grass. The gazelle had 

 got to within twenty paces of me and had then fled 

 away at full speed. 



I experienced a not unnatural desire for the appearance 

 of my men upon the scene, and this now happened, as 

 I gathered from a shout they gave me I did not dare 

 to look round. They were calling out to me what sounded 

 like " Simba ile kali sana ! " ("That lion is a very dan- 

 gerous one! "). I retired backwards step by step, keeping 

 ready to fire at any moment, until at last I found myself 

 again near my men. I beckoned to them, but they 

 were not to be induced to advance the seventy paces or 

 so that divided us until I ordered them in the most 

 peremptory way to do so. 



As soon as I had by me my " Baruti Boy," who held 



1 The mechanism of the millimetre magazine-rifle a few years ago 

 was unreliable according to my experience and that of many sportsmen. 

 Therefore I preferred the single-loader. A check through the jamming 

 of the cartridge occasionally made the rifle useless, and it took some 

 time to get it right. 



364 



