An ExcitIxXg Adventure. 163 



offered me splendid shots, (jiiite close, such as I 

 could hardly have missed. I raised my rifle to 

 take aim at the last, l^ut, ])erhaps fortunately for 

 me, he disappeared, l:)efore I could fire, in the high 

 grass on the other side. I saw Lee fire from his 

 horse at one as it was climbing the bank, which 

 he wounded badly, and which retreated into a 

 patch of thick grass the other side of the spruit, 

 utterinir sounds somethino-bctween a orowba oTunt, 

 and a sob. The lions had now got some 100 yards 

 or so ahead of us, and had disappeared into thick 

 high grass. We kncAv that there was a Avounded 

 one behind us on our left, and another w^ounded 

 one in front of us also on our left. Lee now o-ot 



o 



rather excited. I have no doubt that if he had 

 been 1)y himself, mounted on a good horse, he 

 Avould, to use his own expression, have '' played 

 the devil with them." He told me that lions 

 would not stand being chased ver\' far, but would 

 lie down, conceal themselves, and wait for us, 

 and that if we approached the wounded lions 

 they would in all probability charge, when Ave 

 should have to gallop aAvay at the top of our 

 speed. The idea of galloping at full speed on a 

 second-rate horse through thick bush trees and 

 grass, chased by a lion, Avas singularly unpleasant 

 to me. After a fe^v' minutes' consideration, and 

 after making me promise to remain Avhere I Avas 

 and gallop aAvay as fast as I could as soon as he 

 had fired, Lee determined to go and look at the 

 second wounded lion, Avho Avas lying aAvay from 

 us some sixty or seA^enty yards. I saAV him go 



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