65 
ch. hi] ADVENTURES WITH DIONS 
to death. Goldfinch, in spite of his own severe wounds, 
crawled over and shot the great beast as it lay on his 
friend. 
Most of the settlers with whom I was hunting had 
met with various adventures in connection with lions. 
Sir Alfred had shot many in different parts of Africa ; 
some had charged fiercely, but he always stopped them. 
Captain Slatter had killed a big male with a mane a few 
months previously. He was hunting it in company with 
Mr. Humphries, the District Commissioner of whom I 
have already spoken, and it gave them some exciting 
moments, for when hit it charged savagely. Humphries 
had a shot-gun loaded with buckshot, Slatter his rifle. 
When wounded, the lion charged straight home, hit 
Slatter, knocking him flat, and rolling him over and 
over in the sand, and then went after the native gun- 
bearer, who was running away—the worst possible 
course to follow with a charging lion. The mechanism 
of Slatter’s rifle was choked by the sand, and as he rose 
to his feet he saw the lion overtake the fleeing man, rise 
on his hind-legs like a rearing horse—not springing— 
and strike down the fugitive. Humphries fired into 
him with buckshot, which merely went through the 
skin ; and some minutes elapsed before Slatter was able 
to get his rifle in shape to kill the lion, which, fortunately, 
had begun to feel the effect of its wounds, and was too 
sick to resume hostilities of its own accord. The gun- 
bearer was badly but not fatally injured. Before this 
Slatter, while on a lion hunt, had been set afoot by one 
of the animals he was after, which had killed his horse. 
It was at night, and the horse was tethered within six 
yards of his sleeping master. The latter was aroused 
by the horse galloping off’, and he heard it staggering 
on for some sixty yards before it fell. He and his 
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