252 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 



other men of the party, having become frightened 

 when left by himself. The result of his dis- 

 obedience was that now I could not tell where lay 

 the dead lion or, rather, the lion which I believed to 

 be dead ; but I had no intention of losing so fine a 

 trophy, so I began a systematic search, dividing the 

 jungle into strips, and thus going over the whole 

 place thoroughly. The task of finding him, however, 

 was not so easy as might be thought ; the chase after 

 the lioness had taken us some distance from where 

 I had shot him, and as there were numbers of trees 

 about similar to that under which he fell, it was 

 really a very difficult matter to hit upon the right 

 place. At last one of the men sang out joyfully that 

 he had found the lion at the same time running 

 away from the spot as hard as ever he could. A 

 number of those nearest to him, both Indians and 

 natives, had more courage or curiosity, and went up 

 to have a look at the beast. I shouted to them as 

 I hurried along to be careful and not to go too near, 

 in case by any chance he might not be dead ; but 

 they paid little heed to the warning, and by the 

 time I got up, some half-dozen of them were 

 gathered in a group at the lion's tail, gesticulating 

 wildly and chattering each in his own language, and 

 all very pleased and excited. On getting near I 

 asked if the lion was dead, and was told that he 

 was nearly so, but that he still breathed. He was 



