A LION-DRIVE 
43 
distance than the far-ranging cordite *303. I was lying 
hidden in long grass about one hundred yards from the 
covert, and the noisy line of beaters had already 
approached within half-a-mile, when my Somali gun- 
bearer, Elmi Hassan, who was lying beside me, pointed 
into the wood, saying, “ See ! two lions ! You no see ? ” 
I certainly did not see. For some time I could distinguish 
nothing moving whatever; but at length, as the lions 
came exactly opposite my position, where the wood was 
rapidly thinning out, I saw them. They were not easy 
to detect, so low and stealthy was their advance, crouch¬ 
ing along under covert of brushwood and rushes. As 
the lions were completely enclosed, I would not risk the 
uncertain shot they now offered ; in fact, it seemed 
to me clear that, short of breaking-back, the lions had 
hardly any choice but to pass out between me and my 
one left-hand neighbour. They did neither. At a 
point exactly on my front the two beasts lay down in 
two green bushes that grew within a dozen yards of 
each other beneath the last straggling trees. 
Hardly had this incident occurred than we became 
aware, by a chorus of discordant yells from the beaters 
(some of whom we could see rushing out of the wood), 
that they had come across something inside that w T as 
not quite to their taste. Amidst the din, the word 
“ simba” (lion) predominated, and at once the three guns 
on my right, including my brother W-, dashed off 
towards the point indicated. Having my two marked 
lions in front of me, I remained quietly where I was, 
and so soon as the coast was clear, beckoned to my left- 
hand neighbour, told him what I had seen, and arranged 
that he should advance from the left, while I went 
straight in to the lions in front. 
Naturally, under such circumstances one went in with 
every sense on full stretch, anticipating and prepared 
for any contingency; but on drawing nearer and nearer 
to those two bushes without seeing a sign of movement 
within, the tension began to slacken. At twenty yards' 
distance it seemed impossible that so large a beast as a 
