I
Saw That It Was No Use To Attempt To Climb A
Tree, As The Overspreading Foliage Would Have
Prevented
Me from obtaining any view ahead; so
I continued my slow advance with a fast-beating
heart, not knowing where
The huge brute was
and expecting every moment that he would
charge out at me over the bank from his reedy
refuge. Emboldened to a certain extent,
however, by the fact that up till then I had heard
no movement on the part of my enemy, I crept
steadily forward and at last, from the shelter
of a friendly tree behind the bole of which I
hid myself, I was able to look over the bank.
And there, not twenty yards from me, crouched
the lion - luckily watching, not me, but the native
who had first seen him and who had directed me
to where he was. I raised my rifle very cautiously,
without making the slightest sound, and
steadying the barrel against the trunk of the tree and
standing on tip-toe in order to get a better view,
I fired plump at the side of his head. It was
as if he had suddenly been hit with a
sledgehammer, for he fell over instantly and lay like a
log.
On my calling out that the lion was done for,
the beaters came running up shouting with joy;
and although I warned them to be careful, as
the two lionesses were probably still close at
hand, they did not seem to care in the slightest
and in a twinkling had the dead lion lifted from
the reeds on to the dry bank.
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