\Yith Flashlight and Rifle -* 



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

 some loner shots at hartebeests, but did not bring -uiv 



o o * 



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 1 had been following Ellis for about half an hour, 

 I saw to mv 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 seventv-five paces, mv eve was caught 



.- 1 ^ ^ o 



by something yellow a hundred paces beyond it which 

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

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



.- o tj 



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 easilv have done, tor 



O ^ 



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 



^62 



