270 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 
‘“scuppered” sooner or later if I persisted in going 
after lions with a “‘ popgun,” as he contemptuously 
termed my °303. Indeed, this was rather a bone of 
contention between us, he being a firm believer (and 
rightly) ina heavy weapon for big and dangerous 
game, while I always did my best to defend the 
-303 which I was in the habit of using. On this 
occasion we effected a compromise for the day, I 
accepting the loan of his spare 12-bore rifle as a 
second gun in case I should get to close quarters. 
But my experience has been that it is always a very 
dangerous thing to rely on a borrowed gun or rifle, 
unless it has precisely the same action as one’s 
own ; and certainly in this instance it almost proved 
disastrous. 
Having thus seen to our rifles and ammunition 
and taken care also that some brandy was put in the 
luncheon-basket in case of an accident, we set off 
early in the afternoon in Spooner’s ¢oxga, which is a 
two-wheeled cart with a hood over it. The party 
consisted of Spooner and myself, Spooner’s Indian 
shtkart Bhoota, my own gun-boy Mahina, and two 
other Indians, one of whom, Imam Din, rode in the 
tonga, while the other led a spare horse called 
‘“Blazeaway.” Now it may seem a strange plan to 
go lion-hunting in a ¢oxga, but there is no better 
way of getting about country like the Athi Plains, 
where—so long as it is dry—there is little or 
