424 THE LION KILLER. 



follow this path, and attempt to escape over the ridge of the 

 mountain. 



With any other hunters than the Ouled-Sassi, or even with 

 them in case there had been a lion in question, I would have 

 preferred to have marched right to the lair. But I knew so 

 well the bravery of the one and the habits of the other, that 

 I was sure that in case they walked forward in a solid body 

 without making too much noise, that the lioness would prefer 

 mounting the hill to turning to attack them. 



So after giving the necessary orders, and having taken my 

 place with Hamida upon a rock that guarded the passage, I 

 gave the signal to the hunters to advance. 



The den which the animal had chosen, was nothing but a 

 jumble of rocks from which grew a number of stunted 

 juniper trees. My thirty hunters divided in two bodies 

 advanced slowly up the mountain, until they came within 

 fifty paces of the bushes, when the lioness came out, and sitting 

 down on her haunches took a quiet survey of the scene. The 

 men knelt down with their guns to their shoulders, and very 

 quietly and politely urged the beast to march off, but she 

 resolutely refused, showing her teeth and snarling with most 

 unfeminine ferocity. One of the party with his flint and steel 

 then set fire to the dry moss that covered the ground, and 

 the wind blowing fresh from up the hills, the lioness was 

 obliged to move off sneezing with the smoke that appeared to 

 her of a very unpleasant perfume. 



She slowly ascended the hill following the path I had 

 selected, shaking her head angrily at the disturbance, and 

 from time to time halting to look behind her until she 

 reached the summit of the path, and stood directly before 

 me. 



As her eye caught mine, she came to a dead stop, and sat 

 down. Her look wandered from me to my spahi, and then 

 it seemed to be measuring the height of the rocks on which 



