Once Started, We Rattled Over The Smooth
Expanse At A Good Rate, And On The Way Bagged A
Hartebeeste And
A couple of gazelle, as fresh meat
was badly needed in camp; besides, they offered
most tempting shots, for they
Stood stock-still
gazing at us, struck no doubt by the novel
appearance of our conveyance. Next we came
upon a herd of wildebeeste, and here we allowed
Bhoota, who was a wary shikari and an old servant
of Spooner's, to stalk a solitary bull. He was
highly pleased at this favour, and did the job
admirably.
At last we reached the spot where I had seen
the two lions on the previous day - a slight
hollow, covered with long grass; but there was
now no trace of them to be discovered, so we
moved further on and had another good beat
round. After some little time the excitement
began by our spying the black-tipped ears of a
lioness projecting above the grass, and the next
moment a very fine lion arose from beside her
and gave us a full view of his grand head and
mane. After staring fixedly at us in an inquiring
sort of way as we slowly advanced upon them,
they both turned and slowly trotted off, the lion
stopping every now and again to gaze round in
our direction. Very imposing and majestic he
looked, too, as he thus turned his great shaggy
head defiantly towards us, and Spooner had to
admit that it was the finest sight he had ever seen.
For a while we followed them on foot; but finding
at length that they were getting away from us
and would soon be lost to sight over a bit of
rising ground, we jumped quickly into the tonga
and galloped round the base of the knoll so as
to cut off their retreat, the excitement of the
rough and bumpy ride being intensified a hundred-fold
by the probability of our driving slap into
the pair on rounding the rise. On getting to
the other side, however, they were nowhere to
be seen, so we drove on as hard as we could
to the top, whence we caught sight of them about
four hundred yards away. As there seemed to
be no prospect of getting nearer we decided to
open fire at this range, and at the third shot the
lioness tumbled over to my .303. At first I
thought I had done for her, as for a few minutes
she lay on the ground kicking and struggling;
but in the end, although evidently badly hit, she
rose to her feet and followed the lion, who had
escaped uninjured, into some long grass from
which we could not hope to dislodge them.
As it was now late in the afternoon, and as there
seemed no possibility of inducing the lions to
leave the thicket in which they had concealed
themselves, we turned back towards camp,
intending to come out again the next day to track the
wounded lioness.
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