2G2 LARGE GAME. CHAP. V. 



made them lie down in the bushes which lined it. About 

 fifty men I stationed round the jungle, telling them never 

 to cease making a noise, and I also removed the spies 

 from in front of us. 



It took a long time to do this, a longer for the men 

 to begin to beat, and we waited for an hour by the 

 stream-bank before anything happened. I had left my 

 place and gone to drink, and as I turned to come back, a 

 stir and rustle among the bushes where the men lay 

 concealed made me think something must be in sight, 

 and as I got back the man next me said, " There he is," 

 and I soon caught sight of him standing under the shade 

 of a solitary tree outside of the jungle, with his head 

 turned in the direction of the beaters, evidently uncer- 

 tain whether to await them where he was, or take to 

 flight ; but at last, doubtless considering that this was a 

 different phase of the human character from the one 

 he was accustomed to meet with during his midnight 

 maraudings, he turned tail, and coming towards us in 

 long easy bounds, was soon within a hundred yards of 

 those concealed furthest down. Most fortunately I had 

 told every one not to show themselves on any account 

 before I did so myself, and so the brute, unsuspicious of 

 danger, made for a ford near to which the hunter who 

 had come down with me had stationed himself. At 

 sixty yards off he fired and rolled the brute over like a 

 rabbit, it performing a conn}lete somersault before it 

 regained its legs ; up the whole line jumped with a yell, 

 and the lion, which I had at first fancied was killed, 

 continued his course the same as before, only, perhaps 

 rather stupined by the shot, he abandoned the ford, and 



