94 THE LAND OF THE LION 



of my men by the way had been mauled before, and changed 

 my .350 for my .450, a good gun, but one I never learned 

 to shoot as well with as the former. We kept on after the 

 lions in front, for most of the pack seemed there, and I 

 had to slow up again and again to wipe off my glasses, as 

 the sweat blinded me. All the time the lions seemed to 

 know that I could not hunt them in their own chosen cover, 

 and they took matters leisurely, sometimes passing rapidly 

 ahead of me, and then allowing me to come up till I could 

 guess their proximity by the low growling that would rise 

 from two sides at once, and that seemed almost under my 

 feet, but yet could not be exactly placed. It was jumpy 

 work enough, and the tangled, unburned grass, made the 

 rapid walking very hard. It was easy to keep their trail, 

 for the low, heavy bodies left unmistakable tracks in the 

 still wet grass, and we pushed on without pause or check. 

 At last a head was raised clean above the grass some eighty 

 yards away, and I steadied myself to fire. As I was on the 

 point of pressing the trigger Dooda pulled my arm down, 

 and pointed to a large lioness that was standing quite close 

 at my left, some twenty yards away. She was in a tall bit of 

 grass, and none of us had seen her. As I turned she van- 

 ished. The lion in front during the instant's delay, had sat 

 up on his hind legs and gave me a fair shot at his chest, 

 which I hit full, though I was shaking a bit from exercise, 

 and my glasses were terribly foggy. He jumped high in the 

 air, came down on all four feet, and, of course, vanished. 

 The shot seemed to scatter the band. The grass tracks 

 separated in every direction. We came cautiously to where 

 I had hit him, and found a heavy blood trail easy to follow. 

 Then I set Brownie to track him, and made Dooda look 

 ahead, for my eyes are not much good at any time, and 

 my glasses all foggy from perspiration were of little use in 

 detecting such a difficult thing to see as a wounded lion 

 always is. 



