Untrodden Paths 
35 
crying: “Five other lions have just passed by.” My rising 
doubts were instantly quelled, for ten hands pointed simul¬ 
taneously to a gentle declivity in the direction of the acanthus 
thicket, and I actually saw the heads of two lions emerging from 
the grass. Ordering an Askari to go on skinning, I made ready 
for a fresh pursuit. A wild hunt commenced, the lion always 
trotting in front and I following rapidly. Thus one quarter of 
an hour followed the other. My strength became exhausted, and 
I was about to abandon my efforts when, two hundred paces 
distant, I saw another half-grown beast looking round ferociously 
at me. Although I was in such a breathless condition that I 
could scarcely hold the rifle steady, I managed to let him have 
a bullet. Drawing himself up and lashing with his tail, he 
fled, snarling irascibly, into the acanthus scrub. With him were 
two females. 
The two other lionesses had separated. I decided to make 
an attempt to overtake them. After following the tracks for two 
hours, during which time I occasionally caught glimpses of them, 
I saw them both exposed on the distant summit of the hill gazing 
down towards me—a picture which Kuhnert knows so excellently 
how to portray. The sharply defined outlines of the beasts were 
set in strong relief ; two dark silhouettes against the deep red 
background of the evening sky. Summoning up all my self- 
possession, I took careful aim and fired. The nearest lioness 
fell, and vanished reeling in the grass. I fired again, and the 
second bullet likewise found its mark. We found the first beast 
lying dead in the bush a few feet away, but the approaching 
darkness forbade a search for the other, who was not seen again. 
We now returned with our booty to where we had left the first 
lion I had killed. There we met Schubotz and Wintgens in the 
same exuberant frame of mind as I was. After some futile 
attempts Wintgens had finally succeeded with a master shot in 
stretching out a lioness whilst she was bounding across a burnt-out 
patch of ground. Schubotz had not managed to get another 
shot. Even though results might have been greater, we were in 
high spirits in camp that evening; and more than one of the 
