d ears are long."

The hounds continued to bay, drawing nearer to us. A lioness bounded out
of the reeds, ran towards the King's chariot and as though amazed, sat
down like a dog, so near that a man might have hit it with a stone. The
King shot short, striking it in the fore-paw only, whereon it shook out
the arrow and rushed back into the reeds, while the court behind cried,

"May the King live for ever! The beast is dead."

"We shall see if it is dead presently," said Bes, and I nodded.

Another lion appeared to the right of the King. Again he shot and missed
it, whereon he began to curse and to swear in his own royal oaths, and
the charioteer trembled. Then came the end.

One of the hounds drew quite close and roused the lioness that had been
pricked in the foot. She turned and killed it with a blow of her paw,
then, being mad, charged straight at the King's chariot. The horses
reared, lifting the grooms off their feet. The King shot wildly and fell
backwards out of the chariot, as even Kings of the world must do when
they have nothing left to stand on. The lioness saw that he was down and
leapt at him, straight over the chariot. As she leapt I shot at her
in the air and pierced her through the loins, paralysing her, so that
although she fell down near the King, she could not come at him to kill
him.

I sprang from my chariot, but before I could reach the lioness hunters
had run up with spears and stabbed her, which was easy as she could not
move.

The King rose from the ground, for he was unharmed, and said in a loud
voice,

"Had not that shaft of mine gone home, I think that the East would have
bowed to another lord to-night."

Now, forgetting that I was speaking to the King of the earth, forgetting
the wager and all besides, I exclaimed,

"Nay, your shaft missed; mine went home," whereon one of the courtiers
cried,

"This Egyptian is a liar, and calls the King one!"

"A liar?" I said astonished. "Look at the arrow and see from whose
quiver it came," and I drew one from my own of the Egyptian make and
marked with my mark.

Then a tumult broke out, all the courtiers and eunuchs talking at once,
yet all bowing to the mud-stained person of the King, like ears of wheat
to a tree in a storm. Not wishing to urge my claims further, for my part
I returned to the chariot and the hunting being done, as I supposed,
unstrung my bow which I prized above all things, and set it in its case.

While I was thus emp