More Lions 



second I saw her great chest along my sights, and 

 pressed the second trigger. I remember well 

 dropping my face in my arms almost instanta- 

 neously with doing so, and lying there expecting 

 to feel the awful weight on my back, and other 

 horrors that didn't bear thinking about. The 

 thought flashed through my brain that I hoped 

 my hunters were staunch, as I could do no more ; 

 and if the lioness were still alive, I had only them 

 to rely upon. A yell from my men, of delight 

 too ! Slowly I look up, and there lies a great 

 yellow body motionless. My last shot had pene- 

 trated the centre of her chest, and, raking her, 

 finished the job at once. 



And now to hark back and explain the pre- 

 ceding events. The Somali, excellent fellow 

 though we found him in many ways, is, to use a 

 schoolboy term, a fearful "buck-stick." Shortly 

 after Eustace had left his hunters, and probably 

 just when he had started off the men with their 

 food from camp, one of them got up, and by his 

 own confession strolled up to the nearest bush, 

 and, seizing a clod of earth, threw it in, shouting 

 a challenge to the lion to come out and face him. 

 Now, considering that the whole country was 

 dotted with bushes, and that they had investigated 

 probably hundreds that morning without finding 

 the lion, the probability was enormously in favour 

 of his challenge being unaccepted, and his bit of 



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