THE LAND OF FOOTPRINTS 



snapshot and a lost opportunity. It stands to 

 reason that the man with the rifle in his hand reacts 

 instinctively, in one motion, to get his weapon into 

 play. If the gunbearer has the gun, he must first 

 react to pass it up, the master must receive it prop- 

 erly, and then, and not until then, may go on from 

 where the other man began. As for physical labour 

 in the tropics: if a grown man cannot without dis- 

 comfort or evil efl"ects carry an eight-pound rifle, 

 he is too feeble to go out at all. In a long Western 

 experience I have learned never to be separated 

 from my weapon; and I believe the continuance of 

 this habit in Africa saved me a good number of 

 chances. 



At any rate, we all flung ourselves off our horses. 

 I, having my rifle in my hand, managed to throw a 

 shot after the biggest lion as he vanished. It was 

 a snap at nothing, and missed. Then in an opening 

 on the edge a hundred yards away appeared one of 

 the lionesses. She was trotting slowly, and on her 

 I had time to draw a hasty aim. At the shot she 

 bounded high in the air, fell, rolled over, and was up 

 and into the thicket before I had much more than 

 time to pump up another shell from the magazine. 

 Memba Sasa in his eagerness got in the way — the 

 first and last time he ever made a mistake in the field. 



By this time the others had got hold of their 

 114 



