150 HUNTING THE LION. 



blood, caught sight of his grim majesty seated upon the 

 ground. He was evidently unable to proceed farther, and 

 his life was fast ebbing away. But his eyes glared de- 

 fiance around him, and he evinced a stubborn determination 

 not -to yield to his agony. I stood fearlessly admiring 

 his wounded greatness, when, to my horror, the lioness 

 we had before seen crept up to his side and began to look 

 around him for the hurt. For the first time, to my recol- 

 lection, my nerves felt extremely shaky. Before I could 

 fairly raise my rifle, the quick eyes of the lioness dis- 

 covered me, and with a tremendous growl, she crouched 

 for a spring. The wounded lion arose at the same moment. 

 I stood face to face with both of these horrible monsters, 

 upon the impulse of the moment, I aimed at the lioness, 

 and, as she sprang towards me, she received my bullets in 

 her breast and fell to the ground. Almost at the same 

 instant, another rifle report rang on the air, and the lion 

 fell dead upon his side, uttering an awful groan. The 

 lioness was not quite dead, and in her writhing, she came 

 near me, clawing my legs, causing me to dance about to 

 the time of a lively jig. But the contents of my other 

 barrel quenched her flickering flame of life, and she stiffened 

 beside her lord. At the same moment, Mr. Barrill came 

 up to congratulate me on my narrow escape, and to survey 

 the vanquished beasts. 



The lion was not as large as the one we had killed at 



