a quarter of an hour must have
elapsed in this slow yet exciting search, before one of the men, some
fifty or sixty yards to my left, and a little ahead of the line, called
out that he could see the lion awaiting our approach, with his head
just visible in a large bed of rushes only a short distance in front of
where I then was. Almost at the same moment I found blood marks left by
the wounded animal, leading apparently to a kind of gap in the bank of
the river, which had evidently been worn down by a rhino going to and
fro to drink. I accordingly made for this with the greatest caution,
ordering all the men, except Mahina, to remain behind; and as
noiselessly as possible I slipped from cover to cover in my endeavour
to obtain a peep over the bank. 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. Before I allowed anything further to be
done, however, I had the patch of rushes thoroughly beaten out: but as
no traces of the lionesses could be found, we commenced to skin my fine
trophy. When this was about half done, I decided to let Mahina finish
the operation, while I went on ahead to try my luck eith