IX 
THE LION 
333 
passed slowly forward, but had disappeared before 
I had time to return with a rifle. 
I once saw a wounded lion decline a challenge 
from a single hunter. It is possible that a tiger 
might have behaved in the same manner, but it 
would be dangerous to allow the opportunity. I 
had taken a stroll in the hope of obtaining a shot 
at large antelopes, to procure flesh for camp, and I 
was attended by only one Arab, a Hamran hunter 
armed with his customary sword and shield. Hav¬ 
ing a peculiar confidence in the accuracy of a two- 
grooved single rifle of small bore, I took no other, 
and we walked cautiously through the jungle, ex¬ 
pecting to meet some animal that would supply the 
necessary food. We had not walked half a mile 
when we emerged upon a narrow glade about 8o 
yards in length, surrounded by thick bush. At one 
end of this secluded and shady spot an immense 
lion was lying asleep upon the ground, about 
70 yards distant, on the verge of the dense 
nabbuk. 
He rose majestically as we disturbed him by our 
noise in breaking through the bushes, and before he 
had time to arrange his ideas, I fired, hitting him 
through the shoulder. With the usual roars he 
rolled several times in apparent convulsive struggles, 
until half hidden beneath the dense jungle; there 
he remained. 
If I had had a double rifle I could have repeated 
the shot, but in those days of muzzle-loaders I had 
to reload a single rifle, and as . usual, when in a 
