254 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



success. Well, had he only known it, he was 

 going to have his fill of lions that evening. 

 No sooner, in fact, had he whistled to the dog 

 to come back than he saw a lion on his right, 

 preparing to spring on him. There was no 

 time to put up his rifle, but he instinctively 

 snatched his horse round and thereby saved it, 

 for the lion, missing its mark, merely clawed 

 it as he passed. The horse bounded forward 

 and unseated its rider, galloping away, with 

 the lion in pursuit and the dog after the lion. 

 Meanwhile Mr. Wolhuter fell almost into the 

 jaws of a second lion. It seemed, indeed, to 

 catch him almost before he reached the ground, 

 seizing him by his right shoulder and trotting 

 with him a couple of hundred yards to the foot 

 of a high tree. He had none of the pleasant 

 oblivion to pain recalled by Livingstone when 

 in a similar predicament, but suffered agonies 

 and thought that his end had surely come. 

 Suddenly an inspiration came to him in his 

 dark hour. He remembered the great sheath- 

 knife that he carried at his right hip. It 

 might, for all he knew, have fallen out in the 

 scuffle, as it was always loose. Moreover, the 

 lion had his right arm in its teeth. Yet, with 

 great presence of mind, he managed to reach 

 behind him with his left hand, and to his relief 

 it grasped the handle of the knife. He then 

 coolly stabbed the lion twice in the heart and 



