e; that settles the question, doesn't it? You must be shaken
by your fall, or you would not talk like that, Higgs. Look, here runs
the spoor--see the blood? Well, let's go steady and keep our wind.
We may come on her anywhere, but don't you try any more long distance
shots. You won't kill another lion at two hundred and fifty yards."

"All right," said Higgs, "don't be offended. I didn't mean anything,
except that I am going to teach that beast the difference between a
white man and a Zeu."

Then we began our march, following the blood tracks up and down the
steep sand-slopes. When we had been at it for about half-an-hour our
spirits were cheered by catching sight of the lioness on a ridge five
hundred yards away. Just then, too, some of the Zeus overtook us and
joined the hunt, though without zeal.

Meanwhile, as the day grew, the heat increased until it was so intense
that the hot air danced above the sand slopes like billions of midges,
and this although the sun was not visible, being hidden by a sort of
mist. A strange silence, unusual even in the desert, pervaded the earth
and sky; we could hear the grains of sand trickling from the ridges.
The Zeus, who accompanied us, grew uneasy, and pointed upward with their
spears, then behind toward the oasis of which we had long lost sight.
Finally, when we were not looking, they disappeared.

Now I would have followed them, guessing that they had some good reason
for this sudden departure. But Higgs refused to come, and Orme, in whom
his foolish taunt seemed still to rankle, only shrugged his shoulders
and said nothing.

"Let the black curs go," exclaimed the Professor as he polished his blue
spectacles and mopped his face. "They are a white-livered lot of sneaks.
Look! There she is, creeping off to the left. If we run round that
sand-hill we shall meet her."

So we ran round the sand-hill, but we did not meet her, although after
long hunting we struck the blood spoor afresh, and followed it for
several miles, first in this direction, and then in that, until Orme and
I wondered at Higgs's obstinacy and endurance. At length, when even he
was beginning to despair, we put up the lioness in a hollow, and fired
several shots at her as she hobbled over the opposing slope, one of
which hit her, for she rolled over, then picked herself up again,
roaring. As a matter of fact, it came from the Captain's rifle, but
Higgs, who, like many an inexperienced person was a jealous spor