98 THE LAND OF THE LION 



me once, when I might have finished the big wounded 

 lioness (for the one shot high up and far back was an old 

 lioness). But having only now one gunbearer, Brownie 

 had to keep his eyes on the ground, and thus it was we came 

 on the old lioness, her head very gray, and didn't see her 

 till what I had taken for a weather-worn tree stump van- 

 ished with a loud, angry grunt from before me, and the 

 chase was all on again. The band numbered nine, and, 

 strangely enough, we never were sure that we saw a big lion 

 in it. They never let us come among them as did the other 

 band the day before. But persistently they kept from one hun- 

 dred to three hundred yards in front. When we first drew 

 up to the spot where the two had been hit, we might, of 

 course, have walked in among them then, but grass and 

 thick bushes made it impossible. To do so would have 

 led to our instantly being charged, by how many I don't 

 know (but several were growling very close), and in such 

 cover you could not see a crouching lion at gun-barrel's 

 length. After that the band would not let us near till 

 we came to some heavily wooded cover. On its edge 

 they would make another stand and growl again. Our 

 waiting tactics were then repeated, and when the grunting 

 isounded farther on, we moved in on the track. I should 

 here say that the noise the lions made when they were, as 

 it were, standing us off, was a different, quite different, 

 sound from that they made among themselves as they trotted 

 away together. This last, though not like their common 

 night-call, could be heard at some distance, while the low 

 snarl they gave when crouching in the grass, though hot at 

 all a loud noise, was always to me a horrid, blood-curdling 

 sort of thing, but did not seem to carry any distance. Every 

 ant hill we came to, rising out of the long grass, every hard 

 ridge we had to cross, I hoped would give me a chance 

 but the afternoon wore on, and try as we might there seemed 

 no way of coming up to them. Once we counted the lot, 



