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and fifty yards. Then she ran back, but 
Kermit crumpled her up with his first bullet. 
He then put another bullet in her, and as 
she seemed disabled walked up within fifty 
yards, and took some photos. By this time 
she was recovering, and, switching her tail 
she gathered her hind-quarters under her for 
a charge; but he stopped her with another 
bullet, and killed her outright with a fourth. 
We heard that Mearns and Loring, 
whom we had left ten days before, had also 
killed a lioness. A Masai brought in word 
to them that he had marked her down tak¬ 
ing her noonday rest near a kongoni she had 
killed; and they rode out, and Loring shot 
her. She charged him savagely; he shot 
her straight through the heart, and she fell 
literally at his feet. The three naturalists 
were all good shots, and were used to all 
the mishaps and adventures of life in the 
wilderness. Not only would it have been 
indeed difficult to find three better men for 
their particular work—Heller’s work, for 
instance, with Cuninghame’s help, gave the 
chief point to our big-game shooting—but 
it would have been equally difficult to find 
three better men for any emergency. I 
could not speak too highly of them; nor in¬ 
deed of our two other companions, Cuning- 
hame and Tarlton, whose mastery of their 
own field was as noteworthy as the pre¬ 
eminence of the naturalists in their field. 
The following morning the headmen 
asked that we get the porters some meat; 
