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CH. XII] WOUNDED WARRIORS 
man in front. The warrior threw his spear ; it drove 
deep into the life, for, entering at one shoulder, it came 
out of the opposite flank, near the thigh, a yard of steel 
through the great body. Rearing, the lion struck the 
man, bearing down the shield, his back arched ; and for 
a moment he slaked his fury with fang and talon. But 
on the instant I saw another spear driven clear through 
his body from side to side ; and as the lion turned again 
the bright spear-blades darting toward him were flashes 
of white flame. The end had come. He seized another 
man, who stabbed him and wrenched loose. As he fell 
he gripped a spear-head in his jaws with such tremendous 
force that he bent it double. Then the warriors were 
round and over him, stabbing and shouting, wild with 
furious exultation. 
From the moment when he charged until his death 
I doubt whether ten seconds had elapsed—perhaps less ; 
but what a ten seconds ! The first half-dozen spears 
had done the work. Three of the spear-blades had gone 
clean through the body, the points projecting several 
inches ; and these and one or two others, including the 
one he had seized in his jaws, had been twisted out of 
shape in the terrible death-struggle. 
We at once attended to the two wounded men. 
Treating their wounds with antiseptic was painful, and 
so, while the operation was in progress, I told them, 
through Kirke, that I would give each a heifer. A 
Nandi prizes his cattle rather more than his wives, and 
each sufferer smiled broadly at the news, and forgot all 
about the pain of his wounds. 
Then the warriors, raising their shields above their 
heads, and chanting the deep-toned victory song, 
marched with a slow, dancing step around the dead 
body of the lion, and this savage dance of triumph 
