TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 61 



typical bit of jungle cover. The lions sought it so 

 readily, as they had dined so heavily that they were 

 feeling overdone. The men went around the lair and 

 shouted and beat at the back. Whether the cats were 

 driven forward or not with the din, or whether they 

 had not penetrated far within the retreat at first, I 

 cannot, of course, tell, but I saw from thirty-five yards 

 off, as I stood with my finger on the trigger, ferocious 

 gleaming eyes, and heard ugly short snarls, breaking 

 into throaty suppressed roars every two or three 

 seconds. The jungle cover parted, and with lithe 

 stretched shoulders a lioness shook herself half free of 

 the density, then crouched low again. Down, down, 

 until only the flat of her skull showed, and her small 

 twitching ears. In one more moment she would be 

 on us. I heard Cecily say something. I think it may 

 have been " Fire ! " Sighting for as low as I could see 

 on that half arc of yellow I pulled the trigger, and 

 Cecily's rifle cracked simultaneously. The head of 

 the lioness pressed lower, and nothing showed above 

 the ridge of grass and thorn. The lioness must be 

 dead. And yet, could one kill so great a foe so simply ? 

 We stood transfixed. The sun blared down, a butterfly 

 flickered across the sand, a cricket chirruped in long- 

 drawn, twisting notes. These trifles stamped them- 

 selves on my memory as belonging for ever to the 

 scene, and now I cannot see a butterfly or hear a 

 cricket's roundelay without going back to that day of 

 days and wonder unsurpassed. 



Then I did an inanely stupid thing. It was my first 

 lion shoot, and my ignorance and enthusiasm carried 



