78 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



He was riding along a trail in the darkness, his big boar- 

 hound trotting ahead, his native "boys" some distance 

 behind. He heard a rustle in the bushes alongside the 

 path, but paid no heed, thinking it was a reedbuck. Im- 

 mediately afterward two lions came out in the path behind 

 and raced after him. One sprang on him, tore him out 

 of the saddle, and trotted off holding him in its mouth, while 

 the other continued after the frightened horse. The lion 

 had him bv the right shoulder, and yet with his left hand 

 he wrenched his. knife out of his belt and twice stabbed it. 

 The second stab went to the heart and the beast let go of 

 him, stood a moment, and fell dead. Meanwhile, the dog 

 had followed the other lion, which now, having abandoned 

 the chase of the horse, and with the dog still at his heels, 

 came trotting back to look for the man. Crippled though 

 he was, the hunter managed to climb a small tree; and 

 though the lion might have gotten him out of it, the dog 

 interfered. Whenever the lion came toward the tree the 

 dog worried him, and kept him off until, at the shouts and 

 torches of the approaching Kaffir boys, he sullenly retired, 

 and the hunter was rescued. 



Percival had a narrow escape from a lion, which nearly 

 got him, though probably under a misunderstanding. He 

 was riding through a wet spot of ground, where the grass 

 was four feet high, when his horse suddenly burst into a 

 run and the next moment a lion had galloped almost along- 

 side of him. Probably the lion thought it was a zebra, for 

 when Percival, leaning over, yelled in his face, the lion 

 stopped short. But he at once came on again, and nearly 

 caught the horse. However, they were now out of the tall 

 grass, and the lion gradually drew up when they reached 

 the open country. 



The two Hills, Clifford and Harold, were running an 

 ostrich-farm. The lions sometimes killed their ostriches 

 and stock; and the Hills in return had killed several lions. 

 The Hills were fine fellows; Africanders, as their fore- 

 fathers for three generations had been, and frontiersmen of 



