452 THE HUNTING GEOUNDS 



hour near the place, we had the mortification of 

 hearing him roar about half a mile away. The 

 brute had stolen off like a cur. 



Again and again did we follow him up, but he 

 always got wind of us, and bolted without giving us 

 the chance of a shot. At last, after much difficulty, 

 we got close to him once more ; and this time we 

 thought he seemed inclined to show fight, for we 

 heard him growling in a most savage manner from 

 some deep cover at the bottom of a ravine. I 

 posted Mr B on a small eminence, which com- 

 manded a view on all sides, and then crept forward 

 as noiselessly as possible to try and cut off his 

 retreat. Whilst so doing, the lioness came to re- 

 join the lion, (whose growling must have been a 

 summons for her attendance,) and I caught a 

 glimpse of her as she was bounding through the 

 bushes, and could have fired a snap shot, (which I 

 wish now I had done), but that I wanted to bag 

 the lion, which the Arabs said was a large one, 

 with a fine black mane. 



I crawled on my hands and knees for some time, 

 until I came to the edge of a steep chasm, about 

 ten feet deep, at the bottom of which was dense 

 cover. There I remained for nearly ten minutes 

 listening to the noise, which appeared to come from 

 some thick bush, behind which, when the clouds 

 rolled away from the face of the moon, I could per- 

 ceive a dark body, in which at times I thought I 

 saw a slight movement. I watched for some time. 



