I Was
Particularly Satisfied To See That One Of The Two
Shots I Had Fired As He Charged Down Upon Me
Had Taken Effect.
The bullet had entered below
the right eye, and only just missed the brain.
Unfortunately it was a steel
One which Spooner
had unluckily brought in his ammunition bag by
mistake; still one would have thought that a
shot of this kind, even with a hard bullet, would
at least have checked the lion for the moment.
As a matter of fact, however, it went clean
through him without having the slightest stopping
effect. My last bullet, which was of soft lead,
had entered close to the right eye and embedded
itself in the brain. By this time it had grown
almost dark, so I left the two dead lions where
they lay and rode for camp, which I was lucky
enough to reach without further adventure or
mishap. I may mention here that early next
morning two other lions were found devouring
the one we had first shot; but they had not had
time to do much damage, and the head, which I
have had mounted, makes a very fine trophy
indeed. The lion that mauled Bhoota was
untouched.
On my arrival in camp I found that everything
that was possible was being done for poor Bhoota
by Dr. McCulloch, the same who had travelled up
with me to Tsavo and shot the ostrich from the
train on my first arrival in the country, and
who was luckily on the spot. His wounds had
been skilfully dressed, the broken leg put in
splints, and under the influence of a soothing
draught the poor fellow was soon sleeping
peacefully. At first we had great hope of saving
both life and limb, and certainly for some days
he seemed to be getting on as well as could
be expected. The wounds, however, were very
bad ones, especially those on the leg where the
long tusks had met through and through the flesh,
leaving over a dozen deep tooth marks; the arm,
though dreadfully mauled, soon healed. It was
wonderful to notice how cheerfully the old shikari,
bore it all, and a pleasure to listen to his tale
of how he would have his revenge on the whole
tribe of lions as soon as he was able to get about
again. But alas, his shikar was over. The leg
got rapidly worse, and mortification setting in,
it had to be amputated half way up the thigh.
Dr. Winston Waters performed the operation
most skilfully, and curiously enough the operating
table was canopied with the skin of the lion which
had been responsible for the injury. Bhoota made
a good recovery from the operation, but seemed
to lose heart when he found that he had only one
leg left, as according to his ideas he had now but
a poor chance of being allowed to enter Heaven.
We did all that was possible for him, and Spooner
especially could not have looked after a brother
more tenderly; but to our great sorrow he sank
gradually, and died on July 19.
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