HUNTING THE LION 21 



heavy one for the work in hand. Waiting till I felt 

 I could not miss the mark, I let drive at the shoulder 

 of the advancing animal. As I pulled the trigger 

 I jumped to my left, and at that moment the 

 lioness passed between Owad and myself, sending us 

 spinning in different directions. I found myself 

 sitting up facing the animal in her death throes, 

 a dozen yards away, while an inch of dirt had 

 plugged up the muzzle of my rifle. Owad had 

 already picked himself up, while Darod the imper- 

 turbable apparently had not moved a step*, but was 

 no doubt, with Owad, as glad as I was that the inci- 

 dent was over and that we were all unhurt. Aidid 

 and Bodley, who had galloped up to the animal ,as 

 she charged, were now examining the skin. It was 

 a narrow shave, for the lioness had come between 

 Owad and myself, knocking us both down, though 

 I think that, as my bullet smashed her off 

 shoulder and penetrated the heart, she must have 

 been powerless from the moment I pulled the 

 trigger. " 



Mr. A. B. Lloyd tells the following thrilling story 

 in his book of a boy's successful fight with lions : i 

 " .While staying in one of thie suburbs of the capital 

 I was one morning called up by the chief to come 

 at once and shoot a lion that was doing great 

 damage in the district and had just killed a poor 

 woman while cultivating her garden. She was 

 stooping down pulling up some weeds, when in front 

 of her she heard the awful roar of a lion. Look- 

 ing up in speechless horror, she saw in the grass a 

 few yards away a huge male lion, apparently about 



1 See Bibliography, 3. 



