xxiv BHOOTA'S LAST SHIKAR 273 



wounded lioness. I was now riding " Blazeaway " 

 and was trotting along in advance of the tonga, 

 when suddenly he shied badly at a hyaena, which 

 sprang up out of the grass almost from beneath his 

 feet and quickly scampered off. I pulled up for a 

 moment and sat watching the hyaena's ungainly 

 bounds, wondering whether he were worth a shot. 

 Suddenly I felt " Blazeaway " trembling violently 

 beneath me, and on looking over my left shoulder 

 to discover the reason, I was startled to see two fine 

 lions not more than a hundred yards away, evidently 

 the pair which I had seen the day before and which 

 we had really come in search of. They looked 

 as if they meant to dispute our passage, for they 

 came slowly towards me for about ten yards or so 

 and then lay down, watching me steadily all the 

 time. I called out to Spooner, " Here are the lions 

 I told you about," and he whipped up the ponies 

 and in a moment or two was beside me with the 

 tonga. 



By this time I had seized my '303 and dis- 

 mounted, so we at once commenced a cautious 

 advance on the crouching lions, the arrangement 

 being that Spooner was to take the right-hand one 

 and I the other. We had got to within sixty 

 yards' range without incident and were just about to 

 sit down comfortably to " pot " them, when they 

 suddenly surprised us by turning and bolting off. I 



T 



