282 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES CHAP, xv 



times to fire at him, but the hammer would not 

 go beyond the half-cock. 



Then realising my helplessness, and mad with 

 rage and mortification, I caught my useless rifle 

 by the barrel with both hands and threw it at 

 the lion below me. It clattered down amongst the 

 stones close to him, causing him to throw up his 

 tail with a loud purr and disappear into the long 

 grass. The rifle, though somewhat bruised and 

 dinted, was not much the worse for its fall. I 

 think this episode is about the worst piece of bad 

 luck I have ever met with. No such chance of 

 shooting two lions at one shot had ever been offered 

 to me before or has ever occurred since, and it 

 was surely the very irony of fate that this unique 

 opportunity should have fallen to my lot on the 

 one and only day when my favourite old ten-bore 

 was useless to me, for the Bushmen not only found 

 the hammer which I had lost the day before but 

 the little screw that held it on the tumbler as 

 well ! 



