356 THE LION KILLER. 



taking him in his mouth, gave him two or three shakes and 

 then tossed him head first in the bushes ten steps off. 



Next came along an Arab with a musket and bayonet, who 

 sent his ball at the animal, but the lion made a fish-hook of 

 the bayonet, by the same blow that he sent the man senseless 

 into the bushes, that bordered the wayside. It was done 

 with the same ease that a man would push a stone out of his 

 path. Then seeing the way clear, and the water running 

 bright before him, he started off for the woods of El-Bhar by 

 the ford where I had posted the Arabs. 



As long as he remained on the opposite bank, my brave 

 men stood firmly at their post, shoulder to shoulder, with 

 their long barrels gleaming at the foe they were resolved to 

 conquer or to die. But the moment that the lion dashed 

 into the water with his mane on end, murmuring low 

 thunder, they vacated the ground with a most admirable 

 unanimity. The lion then crossed over on the very path on 

 which they had been standing, and disappeared in the woods. 



The ford that I was watching was so far up the stream that 

 I could not reach the place until too late to do any good, 

 althouo-h I learned from the Arabs, that the lion walked on 

 three legs, and staggered very badly as he went into the 

 woods. 



I signalled to the Arabs to advance, and was about follow- 

 ing up the trail when a messenger came to me, to say that 

 the litter to carry Rostain to Guelma had arrived, and that, 

 suffering very much, he wanted me to go with him. I 

 hastened to his side, and accompanied the slow moving 

 cortege that bore him and the two wounded Arabs, until it 

 arrived safely at Guelma. 



The next day I came back to Mejez-Amar and the 

 wounded lion, and for ten consecutive days we beat up and 

 down the woods where the royal beast had laid down to die, 



