280 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 
reach him ; so that at last they got between him and 
the ten lionesses and cubs, the big lion coming first, the 
horsemen next, and then the lesser lions, all headed the 
same way. As the horse-hoofs thundered closer, the 
lion turned to bay. Kermit—whose horse had once 
fallen with him in the chase—and Tarlton leaped off* 
their horses, and Kermit hit the lion with his first shot, 
and, as it started to charge, mortally wounded it with a 
second bullet. It turned and tried to reach cover, and 
Tarlton stopped it with a third shot, for there was no 
time to lose, as they wished to tackle the other lions. 
After a sharp gallop, they rounded up the lionesses and 
cubs. Kermit killed one large cub, which they mistook 
for a lioness; w r ounded a lioness, which for the time 
being escaped; killed another with a single bullet 
from his *30 to *40 Winchester—for the others he used 
his *405 Winchester—and hit the third as she crouched 
facing him at two hundred yards. She at once came 
in at full speed, making a most determined charge. 
Kermit and Tarlton were standing near their horses. 
The lioness came on with great bounds, so that 
Kermit missed her twice, but broke her shoulder high 
up when she was but thirty yards off. She fell on her 
head, and, on rising, galloped, not at the men, but at 
the horses, who, curiously enough, paid no heed to her. 
Tarlton stopped her with a bullet in the nick of time, 
just before she reached them, and with another bullet 
Kermit killed her. Two days later they came on the 
remaining cubs and the wounded lioness, and Kermit 
killed the latter; but they let the cubs go, feeling it 
unsportsmanlike to kill them—a feeling which I am 
by no means certain I share, for lions are scourges not 
only to both wild and tame animals, but to man 
himself. 
