ed. Horticulture had never interested me especially, but just at
this moment I think a tree, even a thorn tree, would have been a
pleasant subject for intimate study. However, to make a long story
longer, I shot him at a hundred yards and felt certain that both shells
struck. Yet he wheeled around and, stumbling occasionally, was off like
a railway train. Again we followed, two miles of desperate tramping in
that merciless sun, up hills and down hills, until finally we entirely
lost all trace of him. It was now two o'clock. I had eaten nothing since
five o'clock in the morning, my water bottle was so nearly empty that I
dared take only a swallow at a time, my knees were sore from climbing
hills and wading through the tall, dry prairie grass, and I decided to
give up this endless pursuit of a rhino who wouldn't die after being hit
with four cordite shells.

The dry creek bed lay in the course of our homeward march, and we
resolved to take a final look at it. There seemed no likelihood that the
lion was there, and I walked into the place with the supreme courage of
one who doesn't expect to find anything hostile. My head gunbearer and I
had crossed and were walking down in the grass at one side. My second
gunbearer was on the opposite side, and the stillness of death hung over
the burning plain.

There was not a sign of life in any direction. The second gunbearer was
instructed to set fire to the grass in the hope of awakening some
protest from the lion in case he was still in the vicinity. There was a
dry crackling of flames, and before we could count ten a deep growl came
from somewhere in front of me, evidently on one of the edges of the
creek bed. The second gunbearer was the first to locate him, and he
signaled for me to come over on his side of the creek. In a moment I had
dashed down and had climbed out on the other side and was eagerly gazing
at a clump of bushes indicated by the Kikuyu. At first I could
distinguish nothing, but soon I saw the tawny flanks and the lashing
tail of the lion. His head was hidden by the bushes. At that time we
were about a hundred yards from him and it was necessary to circle off
to a point where the rest of his body could be seen. A little side
ravine intervened, and I had to cross it and come directly down through
the clump of bushes. The grass was high, and it was not until I had come
within forty yards of the lion that I could get a clear view of him. He
was glaring at me, with t