304 THE LION KILLER. 



chamber to seek the cause of the undefined sound that had 

 caught her senses. 



Before she saw me I sighted her right ear, and fired. 



The smoke of my gun lay so heavy in the air that I could 

 not see before me, but I heard a short strangled roar, that 

 sounded like a good omen. Soon I could see the lioness 

 stretched out where she was lying when I fired. 



Her sides heaved, and her feet moved back and forward 

 with a quick, convulsive motion. 



I saw in an instant that she was only stunned, and would 

 be on her feet in a moment more. 



I hastily wound my turban around my arm, and sprang 

 into the cover. Without losing a moment, I placed the 

 muzzle of my gun to her head and fired. The bold spirit 

 that ruled the woods was quenched with the report of my 

 gun, and her graceful form lay at my feet a corpse. 



I found my first ball had entered at the corner of the eye, 

 and gone out at the top of the head, fracturing the skull 

 without piercing it. 



In an hour after my shots had been heard, this part, of the 

 forest, heretofore so silent and sacred, was invaded by a crowd 

 of Arabs, who with a thousand wild cries and songs, placed 

 the body of the lioness upon a rough litter, and bore it in 

 state to the douar. There it was lain out upon a mat in the 

 centre of the village, a black bull was killed in honor of the 

 patron Saint, Sidi-Amar, and the entire night devoted to 

 festivities. 



It was a spectacle worthy of an artist's pencil, and fantastic 

 and memorable even to an eye that was used to the daily 

 life of the nomads. 



The fires of cork and oak-wood flashed bright, while 

 moving groups and spreading trees cast dark shadows on the 

 background of snow. In the red light the women of the 

 douar went to and fro, as they distributed the flesh of the 



