148 After Big Game in Central Africa 



for I am sure I have hit it. If he were by our side, 

 to move would be dangerous. At last, as nothing 

 moves, I put out my head, then an arm, and scrutinise 

 the surroundings in the somewhat comical position of 

 a man who tries to extricate himself from a heap of 

 sticks under which he is buried. My men do the 

 same, and, as none of us sees anything, we disengage 

 ourselves from the ruins without other injuries than 

 a few insignificant scratches. 



What happened ? The lion, blinded by pain or 

 maddened by surprise, must have run against our 

 improvised shelter when in flight, or else it grazed it 

 with its foot, and, because of its slightness of con- 

 struction, our building fell. After we have shaken 

 ourselves and extracted the rifles from the ruins, we 

 look around us. The zebra is still there, and only it. 

 We call to our companions, who descend from their 

 tree and report to us. The first hoot was to warn us 

 of the arrival of the lions which passed under the tree 

 in which our scouts were stationed. Walking round 

 the pool, they remained for a long time looking in 

 the direction of the zebra and the hut. The second 

 hoot announced their progress towards the zebra. 

 After the rifle shot, my men, seeing one lion only 

 decamp at a slow trot by the way that it had 

 come, and stopping several times to look back as 

 though it were awaiting its companion, thought that 

 the other had been killed on the spot when I called 

 to them. Unfortunately, that is not so : our lion has 

 disappeared. 



We light a few blades of grass in order to see the 



