74 IN THE GRIP OF THE NYIKA CHAP. 



made the brute wonder what had hurt him. He 

 dropped his would-be victim, eyed him with astonish- 

 ment for a second as he lay beneath him, and then 

 staggered off into the bush. The moment he was 

 out of sight, the Ranger struggled to his feet, 

 climbed a tree, and before he fainted strapped 

 himself on to a branch with his belt. No sooner 

 had he done so than lion number one appeared on 

 the scene again, having failed to catch the pony. 

 He remained at the foot of the tree until the 

 Ranger's dog came up, and by his barking attracted 

 the attention of some passing natives, who drove 

 off the lion and rescued the fainting man from 

 the tree. A brief search disclosed the dead body of 

 the lion that had attacked the Ranger, stabbed to 

 death through the heart. 



Although we were more than a thousand miles 

 away from the scene of this adventure, yet we, 

 too, were riding through a lion-infested country 

 in the dark. It was a vast relief, therefore, when 

 at last in the distance we heard Abbudi's voice 

 calling out to guide us to the track leading to 

 our tents and to safety. I was not quite happy, 

 however, until I saw the cheery camp fires twinkling 

 at us through the bushes. 



I only had a very short rest that night, as at 3 A.M. 

 I started off again accompanied by Abbudi and 

 Mellauw to visit a boma which lay some twenty 



