176 THE LAND OF THE LION 



were scarcely out of his mouth before a tiny yellow spot, 

 fully one thousand yards away, caught his eye first, and 

 then that of my gunbearer Brownie. I heard Brownie 

 whisper "simba," and an instant after H. clapped the glass 

 into his pocket. "A lion and we can cut him off! The 

 going is splendid. He is ours!" 



We started at a hard gallop. The gunbearers, of 

 course, came along as fast as they could, but were soon far 

 behind. But H. and I carried our rifles, he a double .450, 

 I the gun I always use my .350 Mauser repeater. Now to 

 the naked eye that yellow spot, above the yellow grass, on the 

 far-off ridge, was visible. He is watching us, but cannot 

 make up his mind to run. A hundred yards more, we are 

 within a third of a mile of him he is off! As he clears 

 the grass and bounds away with long, clean stride, every 

 bit of his splendid lissome body is visible a full grown 

 male. Now it's sit down and ride hard as man and beast 

 can go. A yell, and we are off! The horses need no 

 urging. They see their game and race for dear life. He 

 holds his own, or almost his own for about half a mile. 

 No twining grass or weeds pull him back. And then we 

 gain fast. I try and keep within a couple of hundred yards 

 of the racers, and so staunch is the fine mule I am riding 

 and so eager is he not to be left behind, that though in the 

 first keen rush the ponies distance me, I am almost holding 

 my own now. More than a mile and a half we have ridden. 

 I can see the lion is done. Suddenly he halts in his stride, 

 he drops from gallop to trot. H. is past him in an instant. 

 He wheels to bay, stands looking first at one pony, then at 

 the other, then back at me. His retreat is cut off, and he 

 knows it. For a moment he lies down and takes his breath, 

 then slowly rises to his feet. His tail swinging from side 

 to side which of the three of us shall he tackle? There 

 is no time to lose, so I cut him down with two shots. 



We had only just dismounted and were congratulating 



