Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



All this time I was keeping up a low whistle, 

 and in, I suppose, a few seconds, though it seemed 

 any time, I heard the bushes moving behind me. 

 For a moment I had a horrible qualm that it 

 might be a second lion, but it was Ajala all right 

 this time. He saw nothing, evidently, and with 

 a motion of my hand I stopped him, when still 

 inside the bushes, and, both of us "making a 

 long arm," took my rifle from him. At the same 

 instant the beast gradually seemed to sink into 

 the grass, and, crouching low, made across the 

 glade. By the time I had my rifle ready I could 

 neither hear nor see a thing of him. I have 

 already mentioned that the glade was barely fifty 

 yards across; beyond was the thickest of bush. 

 Anxiety at having such a companion now gave 

 place to agonizing fears of losing him. I ran on, 

 but the grass even here was some three to four 

 feet high, and I could see nothing ; then I spotted 

 an ant-hill, its top standing as high as the grass, 

 and in a moment I was sitting on it. Just in 

 time, for as I sat down and got my elbows on 

 my knees, I saw my beast down through the 

 grass, going low but quite slowly, and within a 

 yard of the far edge of the open patch. I shot 

 hurriedly and he stopped, stood right up and 

 snarled over his shoulder. I made sure of a 

 charge now, and having no other rifle and two 

 unarmed men behind me, I daren't give him my 



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