218 
THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA chap. 
of coming up with. him. We decided it would be best for 
Abokr, Daura, and the Malingur, with the mule and camel, to 
follow slowly on the tracks, thus driving the lion in front of 
them, while, with my two hunters Geli and Hassan, I made a 
circuit round to the front, and sat in the grass, ready to fire 
in case he should sneak past us. We tried this twice without 
success ; but the third time the party with the camel followed 
the tracks into a strip of khansci half a mile long, its length 
being in the direction in which we were going. Under the 
bushes it was so dark that sometimes we could scarcely see the 
sights of our rifles. The lion, if lying anywhere in this, would 
be certain to sneak away under covert, and if I went quickly 
along outside and sat down where the bushes were thin, as the 
covert was only about a hundred yards wide, he could not pass 
without our seeing him. 
We ran on along the edge of the jungle, and getting to a 
thin place sat down to wait for the slowly-moving men and 
animals to drive the lion to us. I had scarcely settled down 
when Hassan gently patted me on the back and pointed ahead, 
and there was the lion stealing along in front, limping painfully. 
The distance was ninety yards, and sitting down and aiming 
over the grass I hit him again, the bullet catching him in his 
already lacerated forearm. We crouched to see under the 
smoke, which hung in the damp grass (for there had been 
heavy rain in the early part of the night), and heard his growl 
as he sprang into the mimosas. Hassan spied him again two 
hundred yards farther on, as we were running to try and keep 
him in sight, and bringing myself to a halt suddenly and putting 
up the rifle, I fired again, catching him in the shoulder. He 
roared and fell in the bushes. We advanced, and thought he 
had gone on ; and were about to run after him when Daura, 
who had come up, pointed him out crouching in the thick 
bushes thirty yards away, his head between his paws. We 
stood still, and then as I moved sideways to try and spot him 
he gave a low growl. I could not see him plainly, but fired 
into the dark yellow mass which Daura had shown me, which 
I believed to be the lion. The shot told loudly as if hitting 
bone, and all was silent, the yellow patch remaining in the 
same place. We then walked round the mimosa bush through 
which I had fired, and found the lion lying on his side, 
unconsciously gnawing his wounded forearm. As we stood over 
him he showed signs of reviving, and I gave him another shot. 
