80 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
and the gun-bearers close behind. It is ticklish work to 
follow a wounded lion in tall grass, and we walked carefully, 
every sense on the alert. We passed Heller, who had been 
with the beaters. He spoke to us with an amused smile. 
His only weapon was a pair of field-glasses, but he always 
took things as they came, with entire coolness, and to be 
close to a wounded lioness when she charged merely inter¬ 
ested him. A beater came running up and pointed toward 
where he had seen her, and we walked toward the place. 
At thirty yards distance Hill pointed, and, eagerly peering, 
I made out the form of the lioness showing indistinctly 
through the grass. She was half crouching, half sitting, her 
head bent down; but she still had strength to do mischief. 
She saw us, but before she could turn I sent a bullet through 
her shoulders; down she went, and was dead when we 
walked up. A cub had been seen, and another full-grown 
lion, but they had slunk off and we got neither. 
This was a full-grown, but young, lioness of average 
s^’ze; her cubs must have been several months old. We 
took her entire to camp to weigh; she weighed two hundred 
and eighty-three pounds. The first lion, which we had 
difficulty in finding, as there were no identifying marks in 
the plain of tall grass, was a good-sized male, weighing 
about four hundred pounds, but not yet full-grown; al¬ 
though he was probably the father of the cubs. 
We were a long way from camp, and, after beating in 
vain for the other lion, we started back; it was after night¬ 
fall before we saw the camp-fires. It was two hours later 
before the porters appeared, bearing on poles the skin of 
the dead lion, and the lioness entire. The moon was nearly 
full, and it was interesting to see them come swinging 
