“Then, on a sudden, I saw something sufficiently alarming.  On the top of the mass of boulders, opposite to me, standing out clear against the rock beyond, was the huge black-maned lion.  He had been crouching there, and now arose as though by magic.  There he stood lashing his tail, just like a living reproduction of the animal on the gateway of Northumberland House that I have seen a picture of.  But he did not stand long.  Before I could fire—­before I could do more than get the gun to my shoulder—­he sprang straight up and out from the rock, and driven by the impetus of that one mighty bound came hurtling through the air toward me.

“Heavens! how grand he looked, and how awful!  High into the air he flew, describing a great arch.  Just as he touched the highest point of his spring I fired.  I did not dare to wait, for I saw that he would clear the whole space and land right upon me.  Without a sight, almost without aim, I fired, as one would fire a snap-shot at a snipe.  The bullet told, for I distinctly heard its thud above the rushing sound caused by the passage of the lion through the air.  Next second I was swept to the ground (luckily I fell into a low, creeper-clad bush, which broke the shock), and the lion was on the top of me, and the next those great white teeth of his had met in my thigh—­I heard them grate against the bone.  I yelled out in agony, for I did not feel in the least benumbed and happy, like Dr. Livingstone,—­whom, by the way, I knew very well,—­and gave myself up for dead.  But suddenly, at that moment, the lion’s grip on my thigh loosened, and he stood over me, swaying to and fro, his huge mouth, from which the blood was gushing, wide opened.  Then he roared, and the sound shook the rocks.

“To and fro he swung, and then the great head dropped on me, knocking all the breath from my body, and he was dead.  My bullet had entered in the centre of his chest and passed out on the right side of the spine about half way down the back.

“The pain of my wound kept me from fainting, and as soon as I got my breath I managed to drag myself from under him.  Thank heavens, his great teeth had not crushed my thigh-bone; but I was losing a great deal of blood, and had it not been for the timely arrival of Tom, with whose aid I got the handkerchief from my wrist and tied it round my leg, twisting it tight with a stick, I think that I should have bled to death.

“Well, it was a just reward for my folly in trying to tackle a family of lions single-handed.  The odds were too long.  I have been lame ever since, and shall be to my dying day; in the month of March the wound always troubles me a great deal, and every three years it breaks out raw.  I need scarcely add that I never traded the lot of ivory at Sikukuni’s.  Another man got it—­a German—­and made five hundred pounds out of it after paying expenses.  I spent the next month on the broad of my back, and was a cripple for six months after that.  And now I’ve told you the yarn, so I will have a drop of Hollands and go to bed.”