78 PEACE: LION HUNTING 



stupid from the shaking I had received, because 

 instead of moving away and joining the boys, 

 which was the obvious thing to do, I stopped under 

 the trees which they had climbed, and tried again 

 to get a cartridge into the rifle. But the broken 

 wrist was hurting badly, and, putting down the 

 rifle, I rubbed my wrist against the rough bark 

 of one of the trees in the hope of stopping the pain. 

 Presently the boys, all much frightened, came 

 creeping back to me in ones and twos, seeking to 

 induce me to go away with them from danger. 

 Now, though I certainly could not have used it, to 

 get my rifle loaded again had become an obsession, 

 and the one thing I must pigheadedly insist on. 

 I kept handing my rifle to different boys, trying 

 to show them how to clinch the bolt for me, but 

 they were so frightened (and drenched with blood 

 as I was I expect I cut rather a ghastly figure), 

 that it was only after several had fumbled it about, 

 putting it down or handing it back to me, that 

 I got one of them to shove the bolt in. Then 

 immediately I felt faint and sick, and everything 

 seemed to go cold and black, though I managed, 

 with the help of some of the boys, to walk a few 

 hundred yards. 



I now felt that I must lie down, but the boys 

 persuaded me to keep going, exclaiming, " The 

 lion, the lion; he's too close/' A few hundred 

 yards more, and I knew I could not walk all the 

 distance home, but must needs lie down. When 

 I told the boys that two of them must go at once 



