THE LAND OF FOOTPRINTS 



five minutes to forget it, and then advanced very 

 cautiously. We soon found where the objector 

 had halted, and plainly read by the indications where 

 he had stood for a moment or so, and then moved 

 on. We slipped along after. 



For five hours we hung at the heels of that band 

 of lions, moving very slowly, perfectly willing to 

 halt whenever they told us to, and going forward 

 again only when we became convinced that they too 

 had gone on. Except for the first half hour, we 

 were never more than twenty or thirty yards from 

 the nearest lion, and often much closer. Three 

 or four times I saw slowly gliding yellow bodies 

 just ahead of me, but in the circumstances 

 it would have been sheer stark lunacy to have 

 fired. Probably six or eight times — I did not 

 count — we were commanded to stop, and we did 

 stop. 



It was very exciting work, but the men never fal- 

 tered. Of course I went first, in case one of the 

 beasts had the toothache or otherwise did not play 

 up to our calculations on good nature. One or the 

 other of the gunbearers was always just behind me. 

 Only once was any comment made. Kongoni 

 looked very closely into my face. 



"There are very many lions," he remarked doubt- 

 fully. 



158 



