HUNTING ELEPHANT AND RIDING LION 179 



to make a good shot, and the only thing to do was to get 

 on firmer ground just as fast as he could, and keep that 

 single cartridge till the lion was a few yards away. My 

 lucky shot had saved the situation, which otherwise might 

 have been serious indeed, for though he would probably 

 have stopped the lion, no man, no matter how steady his 

 nerves, cares to face a charging beast with one cartridge. 



We walked up together to the little grass patch that 

 now completely hid our game. We shouted and waited, 

 no sign. The lion was lying low. To enter it was not for 

 a moment to be thought of. The reeds and grass grew 

 seven feet high, and he would, though mortally wounded, 

 have pulled someone down. As I said before, he had crawled 

 into a narrow bend of the stream, and as we looked the 

 situation rapidly over, I noticed that on the other side of 

 the water only a few yards away the bank rose sharply for 

 a few feet. Could we gain that point of vantage, I thought 

 we had him at our mercy. Would he let us go quietly by 

 him, within a few yards, wade the stream, and look into his 

 lair from the other side ? We formed our gunboys silently 

 into line across this possible line of retreat, and ourselves 

 stepped through the edge of the high cover down into the 

 water which here was almost five feet deep and running 

 strong. I must admit that for myself I was profoundly 

 relieved when I found my footing at last on the other bank, 

 free from that strangling grass that hid everything at three 

 feet distance. Here I was my own man again. Here, 

 indeed, all risk was over, both for ourselves and our men, 

 and we had him, at last, under our guns not ten yards away, 

 and in a position from which we could at least partly see 

 him. The moment we stood on the little elevation, and 

 had our heads at last above the grass, the lion saw us, and 

 made his one last hopeless effort to come on. He rose, 

 swaying from side to side, and growling deeply. I fin- 

 ished him at once, with a shot in the chest. 



