302 THE LION KILLER. 



to be free from their company, I continued on the trail alone, 

 and followed it into the woods being armed with my double 

 barrel rifle and a poniard. 



As I advanced into the woods, the walking became more 

 difficult, and the close vault of trees overhead more compact, 

 and every minute I was obliged to stop to unfasten my 

 burnous that had caught in the bushes, until finally I took it 

 off altogether and left it behind. At about a half mile 

 from the edge of the woods, I saw what I thought was the 

 lion's cover. It consisted of a dense thicket of olive trees, 

 about a hundred yards in circumference, and so closely 

 packed that it formed a perfect roof; snow laden above, but 

 dry beneath, and warm with the soft siftings of the many 

 foliaged trees, a goodly chamber for the forest queen. The 

 place seemed to breathe the very odor of sanctity, and I could 

 see here and there the marks of her majesty's feet, or more 

 sacred still to plebeian eyes, the very impress of her person as 

 she had lain here and there where fancy led her. 



Knowing how soundly the lion sleeps after he has well 

 eaten, I hoped to be able reach her while still in dreamland, 

 and awaken her only by the ringing of my rifle. So I 

 advanced slowly, step by step, with my body bent, and my 

 eye following the tracks or scanning the thicket around me. 

 Sometimes a thorn would catch my shirt and hold me back, 

 sometimes a vine had fastened its strong tendril across my 

 path, and I would have to stop to free myself with the 

 greatest caution, or on hands and knees glide under the 

 obstruction. 



Finally, I came to a halt before an olive tree closer than 

 any of the others, under whose low sweeping branches the 

 lioness had glided, crouching like myself. In vain I tried to 

 see behind these branches ; they formed an impenetrable veil 

 that shut out all eyes from my lady's bower. I was certain 

 she must be here, it was directly in the middle of the grove, 



