270 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 



" scuppered " sooner or later if I persisted in going 

 after lions with a " popgun," as he contemptuously 

 termed my '303. Indeed, this was rather a bone of 

 contention between us, he being a firm believer (and 

 rightly) in a heavy weapon for big and dangerous 

 game, while I always did my best to defend the 

 303 which I was in the habit of using. On this 

 occasion we effected a compromise for the day, I 

 accepting the loan of his spare 12 -bore rifle as a 

 second gun in case I should get to close quarters. 

 But my experience has been that it is always a very 

 dangerous thing to rely on a borrowed gun or rifle, 

 unless it has precisely the same action as one's 

 own ; and certainly in this instance it almost proved 

 disastrous. 



Having thus seen to our rifles and ammunition 

 and taken care also that some brandy was put in the 

 luncheon-basket in case of an accident, we set off 

 early in the afternoon in Spooner's tonga, which is a 

 two-wheeled cart with a hood over it. The party 

 consisted of Spooner and myself, Spooner's Indian 

 shikari Bhoota, my own gun-boy Mahina, and two 

 other Indians, one of whom, Imam Din, rode in the 

 tonga, while the other led a spare horse called 

 " Blazeaway." Now it may seem a strange plan to 

 go lion-hunting in a tonga, but there is no better 

 way of getting about country like the Athi Plains, 

 where so long as it is dry there is little or 



