For five hours we hung at the heels of that band of lions, moving
very slowly, perfectly willing to halt whenever they told us to,
and going forward again only when we became convinced that they
too had gone on.
Except for the first half hour, we were never
more than twenty or thirty yards from the nearest lion, and often
much closer. Three or four times I saw slowly gliding yellow
bodies just ahead of me, but in the circumstances it would have
been sheer stark lunacy to have fired. Probably six or eight
times-I did not count-we were commanded to stop, and we did
stop.
It was very exciting work, but the men never faltered. Of course
I went first, in case one of the beasts had the toothache or
otherwise did not play up to our calculations on good nature. One
or the other of the gunbearers was always just behind me. Only
once was any comment made. Kongoni looked very closely into my
face.
"There are very many lions," he remarked doubtfully.
"Very many lions," I agreed, as though assenting to a mere
statement of fact.
Although I am convinced there was no real danger, as long as we
stuck to our plan of campaign, nevertheless it was quite
interesting to be for so long a period so near these great
brutes. They led us for a mile or so along the course of the
stream, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other.
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