Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



braggadocia being harmless enough. It is always 

 the unexpected that happens, however, in big- 

 game shooting. The lioness just happened to be in 

 that very bush, and she was at him in a whirlwind. 

 Plucky enough, as after events showed, he must 

 have lost his head, after the manner of most 

 Africans in an emergency. He fired both barrels 

 and hit the lioness, as I subsequently found, in 

 the extremity of the tail. The reports, however, 

 turned her on to the second hunter. He, poor 

 chap, was sitting down peacefully, and didn't 

 realize what was up till, as he afterwards de- 

 scribed, he saw the lion flying through the air at 

 him. His rifle was across his knees, but he 

 managed to get it cocked and up, and pressed the 

 trigger at the moment that the lioness lit on him, 

 or rather a fraction of a second after, as the rifle 

 went off with the lion on the top and the muzzle 

 in the sand ; hence the blowing off of the barrel. 

 He was then caught up and shaken like a rat. 

 The first hunter was meanwhile fumbling in his 

 pocket for the ample supply of cartridges he 

 always carried, but couldn't find one, the truth 

 being that he was feeling in an empty right-hand 

 pocket, whereas they were all in the left, or vice 

 versa, so completely had he lost his head. His 

 pluck, however, did not desert him, and as the 

 lioness was trotting off with his companion, he 

 dashed up and began belabouring her with his 



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