Once at a safe distance I blazed a tree with my hunting knife and
departed for camp, well pleased to be out of it. At camp I ate
lunch and had a smoke; then with Memba Sasa and Mavrouki returned
to the scene of trouble. I had now the 405 Winchester, a light
and handy weapon delivering a tremendous blow.
We found the place readily enough. My lioness had recovered from
the first shock and had gone. I was very glad I had gone first.
The trail was not very plain, but it could be followed a foot or
so at a time, with many faults and casts back. I walked a yard to
one side while the men followed the spoor. Owing to the abundance
of cover it was very nervous work, for the beast might be almost
anywhere, and would certainly charge. We tried to keep a neutral
zone around ourselves by tossing stones ahead of and on both
sides of our line of advance. My own position was not bad, for I
had the rifle ready in my hand, but the men were in danger. Of
course I was protecting them as well as I could, but there was
always a chance that the lioness might spring on them in such a
manner that I would be unable to use my weapon. Once I suggested
that as the work was dangerous, they could quit if they wanted
to.
"Hapana!" they both refused indignantly.
We had proceeded thus for half a mile when to our relief, right
ahead of us, sounded the commanding, rumbling half-roar,
half-growl of the lion at bay.
Instantly Memba Sasa and Mavrouki dropped back to me. We all
peered ahead. One of the boys made her out first, crouched under
a bush thirty-two yards away. Even as I raised the rifle she saw
us and charged. I caught her in the chest before she had come ten
feet. The heavy bullet stopped her dead. Then she recovered and
started forward slowly, very weak, but game to the last. Another
shot finished her.
The remarkable point of this incident was the action of the
little Springfield bullet. Evidently the very high velocity of
this bullet from its shock to the nervous system had delivered a
paralyzing blow sufficient to knock out the lioness for the time
being. Its damage to tissue, however, was slight. Inasmuch as the
initial shock did not cause immediate death, the lioness
recovered sufficiently to be able, two hours later, to take the
offensive. This point is of the greatest interest to the student
of ballistics; but it is curious to even the ordinary reader.
That is a very typical example of finding lions by sheer chance.
Generally a man is out looking for the smallest kind of game when
he runs up against them. Now happened to follow an equally
typical example of tracking.
The next day after the killing of the lioness Memba Sasa, Kongoni
and I dropped off the bench, and hunted greater kudu on a series
of terraces fifteen hundred feet below. All we found were two
rhino, some sing-sing, a heard of impalla, and a tremendous
thirst. In the meantime, Mavrouki had, under orders, scouted the
foothills of the mountain range at the back. He reported none but
old tracks of kudu, but said he had seen eight lions not far from
our encounter of the day before.
Therefore, as soon next morning as we could see plainly, we again
crossed the canyon and the waist-deep stream. I had with me all
three of the gun men, and in addition two of the most courageous
porters to help with the tracking and the looking.
About eight o'clock we found the first fresh pad mark plainly
outlined in an isolated piece of soft earth. Immediately we began
that most fascinating of games-trailing over difficult ground.
In this we could all take part, for the tracks were some hours
old, and the cover scanty. Very rarely could we make out more
than three successive marks. Then we had to spy carefully for the
slightest indication of direction. Kongoni in especial was
wonderful at this, and time and again picked up a broken grass
blade or the minutest inch-fraction of disturbed earth. We moved
slowly, in long hesitations and castings about, and in swift
little dashes forward of a few feet; and often we went astray on
false scents, only to return finally to the last certain spot. In
this manner we crossed the little plain with the scattered shrub
trees and arrived at the edge of the low bluff above the stream
bottom.
This bottom was well wooded along the immediate bank of the
stream itself, fringed with low thick brush, and in the open
spaces grown to the edges with high, green, coarse grass.
As soon as we had managed to follow without fault to this grass,
our difficulties of trailing were at an end. The lions' heavy
bodies had made distinct paths through the tangle. These paths
went forward sinuously, sometimes separating one from the other,
sometimes intertwining, sometimes combining into one for a short
distance. We could not determine accurately the number of beasts
that had made them.
"They have gone to drink water," said Memba Sasa.
We slipped along the twisting paths, alert for indications; came
to the edge of the thicket, stooped through the fringe, and
descended to the stream under the tall trees. The soft earth at
the water's edge was covered with tracks, thickly overlaid one
over the other. The boys felt of the earth, examined, even
smelled, and came to the conclusion that the beasts must have
watered about five o'clock. If so, they might be ten miles away,
or as many rods.
We had difficulty in determining just where the party left this
place, until finally Kongoni caught sight of suspicious
indications over the way.
