TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 251 



with axes and hangols to the place where the koodoo had 

 been. Had been ! For there it was not when we returned. 

 The dragging of the bushes and the crushed grass 

 showed us the way. There at some two hundred yards 

 off was all that now remained of the lesser koodoo. 



A flash of sinuous yellow. A cry of " Libbah ! 

 Libbah ! " from the left-hand hunter. The durr 

 grass waved, and a fine lioness bounded high and 

 sank again. Crack ! from Cecily's rifle. She must 

 have been in better place than I was for a shot. I 

 should have annihilated one of the men had I blazed 

 away. Crack ! again. And then I saw what the 

 redoubtable Cecily was firing at. Another animal 

 altogether ! A massive lion, with an almost black 

 mane and more cumbersome in the front than any 

 other of his genus I had ever seen. All lions fall 

 away very much behind, but I really think this one 

 must have been malformed. However, we never saw 

 him again, so the point had, perforce, to remain un- 

 settled. As the lion streaked off, evidently not incon- 

 venienced by Cecily's bombardment, his mate made 

 a successful effort to follow his lead. Flat, and low 

 to earth, snake-like, she crossed the only bare patch 

 of clearing to the right of me. Still my line of fire 

 was blocked by a hunter who put himself in my way 

 every time as if by design, and had not the sense to 

 drop and give me a chance. Still, there was Clarence 

 on the extreme right, armed with a 12-bore. The 

 lioness would have to run the gauntlet of his fire. 

 " Maro ! Maro ! " (Shoot ! Shoot !) I cried to him in an 

 agony of nervous Hindostanee. 



