286 THE LAND OF THE LION 



stand in them, but had to stoop and bend and even crawl 

 to make any progress. Then a lighter patch of jungle 

 would cheer you and you could rest for a few moments on 

 an ant hill, wipe off your drenched head and hat, clean your 

 eye glasses and begin to crawl again. I am leaving syce 

 all this time some hundreds of yards outside such cover, 

 feeding his mule in the open. The lion spoor turned in and 

 out and led us suddenly on to the fresh track of a herd of 

 buffalo. We had not got much farther, when close to us 

 there sounded a dozen short sharp whistling snorts and then 

 a commotion quite nerve-shaking as the herd of great beasts 

 crashed away. I should have said that in this dense steam- 

 ing tangle there was no wind; little puffs of light air came 

 now and then, not enough to cool you but evidently quite 

 enough to give you away. This experience was repeated 

 twice in the next hour. We drew within a few yards of the 

 buffalo, when the same stampede would occur. Once I 

 almost kicked a calf that rose from the dense tangle right 

 under my feet and then we paused and let her go her way; 

 for a calf means a cow, and a cow with calf will charge 

 quickly and charge home, and no charge of any beast that 

 runs is more determined or deadly. Moreover, this cactus 

 thicket was no place to receive a charge in. 



Somehow we succeeded, by no plan of our own, to work 

 the herd toward the outskirts of the wood, when they broke 

 cover for the open. You could tell they had reached the 

 open by the thunder of their hoofs, unaccompanied by the 

 heavy crashing they made while in the underbrush. Now 

 was our chance. We found ourselves near the edge. My 

 two gun bearers, struggling side by side, tore a way through 

 the few intervening yards of cover that shut us in. It was 

 a desperate moment. Pricked and torn, I was outside, 

 sitting panting on the ground, my .450 double rifle resting 

 on my knees. But alas, they had had too long a start, so 

 I had to content myself with the sight, and it was a splendid 



