what ardour he pinned them b y the nose! and
soon bathing himself in blood, he appeared to
be the v e ry D o g o f Murder, a miracle o f rabid
ferocity.
Billali, requested to run to camp to procure
Wangwana to carry the meat to camp, was only
too h ap p y , knowing what brave cheers and
hearty congratulations would greet him. Msenna
was already busy skinning one o f the animals,
some 300 yards from me; Jack was lying at my
feet, watchful o f the dead zebra on which I was
seated, and probably calculating, so I supposed,
how large a share would fall to him for his
assistance in seizing the noble quarry b y the
nose. I was fast becoming absorbed in a mental
picture o f what might possibly lie behind the
northern mountain barrier o f the plain, when
Tack sprang up and look ed southward. Turning
my head, I made out the form o f some
tawny animal, that was advancing with a curious
long step, and I recognized it to be a lion. L
motioned to Msenna, who happened to be lo o k ing
up, and beckoned him. “What do yo u think
it is, Msenna?” I asked. “ Simba (a lion), master,
he answered.
Finding my own suspicions verified, we botti
la y down, and prepared our rifles. Tw o e x plosive
bullets were slipped into an elephant
rifle, and I felt sure, with the perfect rest which
5 the b o d y o f the zebra gave for the rifle, that
could drop anything living larger than a cat at
the distance o f 100 yards; so I awaited his approach
with composure. The animal advanced
to within 300 yards, and then, giving a quick
bound as though surprised, stood still. Shortly
afterwards, after a deliberate survey, he turned
sharp round and trotted off into a low shrubby
jungle, about 800 yards away. T en minutes
elapsed, and then as many animals emerged from
the same spot into which the other had disappeared,
and approached us in stately column.
But it being now dusk, I could not discern them
very clearly. W e both were, however, quite
sure in our own minds that th e y were lions, or
at any rate some animals so like them in the
twilight that we could not imagine them to be
anything else. When the foremost had come
within 100 yards, I fired. It sprang up and fell,
and the others disappeared with a dreadful rush.
W e now heard shouts behind us, for the W a ngwana
had come ; so, taking one or two with me,
I endeavoured to discover what I felt sure to be
a prostrate lion, but it could not be found. It
occupied us some time to skin and divide our
game, and as the camp was far, we did not
reach it until 9 P. M., when, o f course, we received
a sincere welcome from people hungry for
meat.
T he next day Manwa Sera went out to hunt
for the lion-skin, but returned after a long search