We Could Duck Down Into The Depression, Sneak Along It,
Come Up Back Of The Little Bush, And Shoot From Very Close Range.
Leaving The Gunbearers, We Proceeded To Do This.
So quietly did we move that when we rose up back of the little
bush a lioness lying under it with her cub was as surprised as we
were!
Indeed, I do not think she knew what we were, for instead of
attacking, she leaped out the other side the bush, uttering a
startled snarl. At once she whirled to come at us, but the brief
respite had allowed us to recover our own scattered wits. As she
turned I caught her broadside through the heart. Although this
shot knocked her down, F. immediately followed it with another
for safety's sake. We found that actually we had just missed
stepping on her tail!
The cub we caught a glimpse of. He was about the size of a setter
dog. We tried hard to find him, but failed. The lioness was an
unusually large one, probably about as big as the female ever
grows, measuring nine feet six inches in length, and three feet
eight inches tail at the shoulder.
Billy had her funny times housekeeping. The kitchen department
never quite ceased marvelling at her. Whenever she went to the
cook-camp to deliver her orders she was surrounded by an
attentive and respectful audience. One day, after holding forth
for some time in Swahili, she found that she had been standing
hobnailed on one of the boy's feet.
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