The pony submitted to the ordeal a second time.  This time there was no bucking, and shortly afterwards the lads started for their companions bearing the trophy of their hunt with them.

CHAPTER XVI

A NEW WAY TO HUNT LIONS

Long before they reached the meeting point they heard the long-drawn “Woohoo!” of Jim Nance calling them in.  They were the only ones out at that time.  Tad set up a series of answering “woos-hoos” that caused Silver Face to wiggle his ears disapprovingly, as if this were some new method of torture invented for his special benefit.

As they got in sight of the rest of the party, the boys set up a shout.  Their companions, about that time, discovered that Tad was carrying something before him on the pony.  Chunky and Ned started on a run to meet Tad and Walter.  How Chunky did yell when he discovered what that something was.

“They’ve got a cat!  They’ve got a cat!” he howled, dancing about and swinging his arms.  “I tell you, they’ve got a cat!”

Tad rode into camp smiling, flinging the lion to the ground, which caused Tad’s pony to perform once more.

“Who shot him?” cried the Professor, fully as excited as the boys.

“This is a partnership cat,” laughed Tad.  “We both have some bullets in him.  How many did you fellows get?”

“Well, I had one, but he got away,” answered Stacy, his face sobering instantly.  “And—–­and he carried off my rifle too.”

“What’s that?” demanded Tad.

Chunky explained briefly.  But he had little opportunity to talk.  Dad, who had been examining the dead lion, straightened up and looked at Tad.

“Good job, boys.  It’s a dandy.  Must weigh nigh onto three hundred pounds.  Have much of a tussle with him?”

“Not any.  He was dead when he got down to us.”

“Very fine specimen,” decided the Professor, examining the dead beast from a respectable distance.  “You lads are to be congratulated.”

“Say, I’m going with you to-morrow,” cried Stacy.  “These folks don’t know how to hunt lions.”

“Do you?” demanded Nance witheringly.

Stacy colored violently.

“At least I know how to stalk them,” he answered.  “If I lose my gun in the excitement that doesn’t mean that I’m not a natural born lion chaser.  Anybody can shoot a lion, but everybody can’t sit still and charm the lion right up to him.”

They admitted that the fat boy was right in this assertion.  Chunky had done all of that.  Upon their return to camp, Walter and Tad had asked numerous questions about the loss of the gun.  There was little additional information that either Stacy or the two men could give them.  The gun had most mysteriously disappeared, that was all.  Nance was more puzzled than any of the others and he groped in vain for an explanation of the mystery, but no satisfactory explanation suggested itself to his mind.