378 THE LION KILLER. 



be safest to take to their heels, to mount a rock, or climb one 

 of the stunted trees that grew on the declivity, they concluded 

 that the best place for them would be nearest to me, and 

 asked permission to remain. 



This confidence in my success was a compliment too great 

 to be resisted, and I granted the request ; they squatted in 

 the moss, and we waited the action of the powers that be. 



In about a quarter of an hour the lioness appeared, and 

 before she saw us, she was by the side of the kid. At sight 

 of the strangers she halted, looking around her with aston- 

 ishment, and before she could recover from her surprise,' I 

 fired at her head, and she fell motionless. The Arabs sprang 

 to their feet in joy, one came to kiss my hand, another ran 

 to examine the prize, when suddenly the lioness, that whilom 

 lay so stark, sprang to her feet with a hasping growl like a 

 panther, displaying a row of teeth like bayonets. 



One poor devil almost had his hand on her as she arose. 

 He gave a leap and a scream together, seized a branch of the 

 tree over his head, and disappeared in the foliage like a squir- 

 rel. The rest fled in dismay, and the lioness fell dead under 

 a second ball that passed through her heart. 



Her body went to supply the rations of our soldiers, and 

 I continued in the mountain to listen to the roarings of the 

 lion, who all the while went about seeking his mates, mut- 

 tering loud displeasure at their absence. For some timo 

 longer I waited on the hills, until I judged from the silence 

 about me, and the confidence of the wild game roaming 

 about, that the lion had left. His solitary life was unpleas- 

 sant to him, filled as it must have been with the memories 

 of his past conjugal happiness, and perchance, troubled with 

 some premonitions of a similar fate impending over his own 

 head; at all events he packed up his worldly goods, and 

 departed to seek another home. 



