quarter-mile when one of the rearguard came running
up.

"Bwana," said he, "we have seen the lioness. She is lying in a patch of
grass. After you had passed, we saw her raise her head."

It seemed impossible that she should have escaped both our eyes and the
dogs' noses, but we returned. The man pointed out a thin growth of
dried, yellow grass ten feet in diameter. Then it seemed even more
incredible. Apparently we could look right through every foot of it. The
man persisted, so we advanced in battle array. At thirty yards Captain
D. saw the black tips of her ears. We all looked hard, and at last made
her out, lying very flat, her head between her paws. Even then she was
shadowy and unreal, and, as I have said, the cover did not look thick
enough to conceal a good-sized dog.

As though she realized she had been sighted, she at this moment leapt to
her feet. Instantly I put a.405 bullet into her shoulder. Any other lion
I ever saw or heard of would in such circumstances and at such a
distance immediately have charged home. She turned tail and ran away. I
missed her as she ran, then knocked her down with a third shot. She got
up again, but was immediately hit by Captain D.'s.350 Magnum and brought
to a halt. The dogs, seeing her turn tail and hearing our shots, had
scrambled madly after her. We dared not shoot again for fear of hitting
one of them, so we dashed rapidly into the grass and out the other side.
Before we could get to her, she had sent Ruby flying through the air,
and had then fallen over dead. Ruby got off lucky with only a deep gash
the length of her leg.

This was the only instance I experienced of a wounded lion showing the
white feather. She was, however, only about three-quarters grown, and
was suffering from diarrhoea.

XXIII.

THE BIG LION.

The boys skinned her while we ate lunch. Then we started several of them
back towards camp with the trophy, and ourselves cut across country to a
small river known as the Stony Athi. There we dismounted from our
horses, and sent them and the boys atop the ridge above the stream,
while we ourselves explored afoot the hillside along the river.

This was a totally different sort of country from that to which we had
been accustomed. Imagine a very bouldery hillside planted thickly with
knee-high brambles and more sparsely with higher bushes. They were not
really brambles, of course, but their tripping, tangling, spiky
qualities were the same. We had t