THREE LIONS SEEN 
55 
way finally declared we should never come up with them. 
When he exclaimed, as he generally did on occasions when 
the scent was becoming very warm, ‘ Now we go home,’ I 
packed him off home, and, seizing his rifle, went on follow- 
ing the spoor, determined to catch a glimpse, at least, of the 
lions. 
The bush got denser and denser. The thorns scratched 
one horribly. From walking we got to stooping, and from 
stooping to crawling under it. The spoor now separated, 
and finally got lost. We walked up and down trying to 
find it, and I had just gone back to examine the last track 
we had seen, when I heard a loud crashing sound, accom- 
panied by an angry ‘ whuff.’ Looking up, I beheld two 
lions and a lioness bound out of a thicket of grass and bush 
and amble along right through the middle of the men, who 
threw down their rifles and decamped in every direction. 
The lions had been entirely surrounded by us. I put up 
my rifle, and was just about to pull on the biggest lion, 
when a man ran right across me, and I just refrained from 
firing in time. When he was past, the lion had dis- 
appeared among the bushes. I crawled through an opening 
on hands and knees, and again caught sight of two lions 
going fast to the right of me, and another to the left. 
When through, I dashed across a bit of open ground after 
them with all my might, but they had entirely vanished. 
We followed the spoor of the two (the third left them) for 
several miles, but never saw them again, and as it was 
getting late, and the spoor again entered the thick jungle, 
I was reluctantly compelled to leave them. I spent another 
long sleepless night in the zareba by our friend, the rotting 
pony (I seem to smell him now !), but not a bark of a lion 
did my ears catch. 
Next morning we loaded up, and marched towards the 
main caravan again. We camped for the night at a place 
called Uruthsami. Sitting under the grateful shade, I 
watched my followers at work, and a busy scene it was. 
The camels all knelt down, and in a twinkling every load 
