60 THE LION KILLER. 



one, and breaks the arm of another, and cleaving down the 

 flesh of a third, with a bound is off in the woods again, leav- 

 ing the discomfited troops without they having fired a 

 gun. 



Then follow the most deafening shrieks, and an uproar 

 beyond conception. Every one charges his neighbor with 

 the result of what has just happened, and the poor soul who 

 first pointed out the lion, if he happens to have been neither 

 killed nor wounded, is blamed and reproached as though he 

 had said to the lion, " Come quick, now is the moment." 



Then comes up the other party and they count their losses. 

 One killed and two wounded. That is too bad! What, 

 without firing a shot ! This must be revenged. Where has 

 he gone, the coward ! And the party get so- excited as no 

 longer to listen to reason. 



Very good, my braves, you need not go far to search the 

 enemy, he will come to you. You have made too much 

 racket here on his domains, you have injured his nerves, look 

 out for yourselves, the day badly commenced badly ends. 



And there he comes, or rather returns ; stand clear, the lion 

 charges. 



In truth, the animal excited by the noise, and allured by 

 the blood that he has drawn, comes crashing through the 

 underbush, roaring with a heavy voice and with his head 

 high in air and mouth open, charges upon the troops. This 

 time the hunters are not taken unprepared, and thirty balls 

 are buried in the living target. The lion crippled with 

 wounds falls in the midst of the Arabs, seizing with his claws 

 and teeth and tearing in pieces all that he can reach, until he 



