s companion, approached and crouched directly
in front of the lion till his own face was scarcely two feet from the
lion's, and there made such frightful grimaces and let off such shrill
shrieks, that, frightened from his prey, the lion slunk snarling to the
edge of the thicket.

Just at this moment the _Sahib_ raced upon the scene, accompanied by
his Secretary, H. Morgan Brown. In the run he had far outdistanced his
gun-bearers. Marlow was unarmed and Brown carried nothing but a
camera. Thus the _Sahib's_ single-shot .577 rifle was the only
effective weapon in the party, and for it he did not even have a single
spare cartridge. The one little cylinder of brass within the chamber
of his rifle, with the few grains of powder and nickeled lead it held,
was the only certain safeguard of the group against death or mangling.

All this must have flashed across the _Sahib's_ mind as he leaped from
his pony and took stand in the open, sixty steps from where the lion
stood roaring and savagely lashing his tail. A little back of the
_Sahib_ and to his left stood Brown with his camera, beside him Marlow.

Instantly, firm planted on his feet, the _Sahib_ threw the rifle to his
face for a steady standing shot. But quicker even than this act,
instinctively, the furious King of Beasts had marked the giant bulk of
the _Sahib_ as the one foeman of the half-score round him worthy of his
gleaming ivory weapons, and at him straight he charged the very instant
the gun was levelled, coming in great bounds that tossed clouds of dust
behind him, coming with hoarse roars at every bound, roars to shake
nerves not made of steel and still the beating of the stoutest heart.
On came the lion, and there stood the _Sahib_--on and yet on--till it
must have seemed to his companions that the _Sahib_ was frozen in his
tracks.

But all the time a firm hand and a true eye held the bead of the rifle
sight to close pursuit of the lion's every move, so held it till only a
narrow sixteen yards separated man and beast. Then the _Sahib's_ rifle
cracked; and, with marvellous nerve, Brown snapped his camera a second
later and caught the picture of the kill. Hitting the beast squarely
in the forehead just at the take-on of a bound, the heavy .577 bullet
cleaned out the lion's brain pan and killed him instantly, his body
turning in mid-air and hitting the ground inert. A better rifle-shot
would be impossible, and as good a camera snapshot has certainly nev