40 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CH. in 



should fire and it turn out to be nothing after all. 

 After this there was intense silence again for a 

 second or two, then with a sudden bound a huge 

 body sprang at us. " The lion ! " I shouted, and we 

 both fired almost simultaneously not a moment too 

 soon, for in another second the brute would assuredly 

 have landed inside the wagon. As it was, he 

 must have swerved off in his spring, probably 

 blinded by the flash and frightened by the noise of 

 the double report which was increased a hundred- 

 fold by the reverberation of the hollow iron roof of 

 the truck. Had we not been very much on the 

 alert, he would undoubtedly have got one of us, and 

 we realised that we had had a very lucky and very 

 narrow escape. The next morning we found Brock's 

 bullet embedded in the sand close to a footprint ; it 

 could not have missed the lion by more than an 

 inch or two. Mine was nowhere to be found. 



Thus ended my first direct encounter with one of 

 the man-eaters. 



