Now I felt that if I hesitated any more, all would be finished.  The lioness was much longer than Higgs—­a short, stout man—­and her hind quarters projected beyond his feet.  At these I aimed rapidly, and, pressing the trigger, next second heard the bullet clap upon the great beast’s hide.  Up she sprang with a roar, one hind leg dangling, and after a moment’s hesitation, fled toward the sand-hill.

Now Orme, who was behind me, fired also, knocking up the dust beneath the lioness’s belly, but although he had more cartridges in his rifle, which was a repeater, before either he or I could get another chance, it vanished behind a mound.  Leaving it to go where it would, we ran on towards Higgs, expecting to find him either dead or badly mauled, but, to our amazement and delight, up jumped the Professor, his blue spectacles still on his nose, and, loading his rifle as he went, charged away after the wounded lioness.

“Come back,” shouted the Captain as he followed.

“Not for Joe!” yelled Higgs in his high voice.  “If you fellows think that I’m going to let a great cat sit on my stomach for nothing, you are jolly well mistaken.”

At the top of the first rise the long-legged Orme caught him, but persuade him to return was more than he, or I when I arrived, could do.  Beyond a scratch on his nose, which had stung him and covered him with blood, we found that he was quite uninjured, except in temper and dignity.  But in vain did we beg him to be content with his luck and the honours he had won.

“Why?” he answered, “Adams wounded the beast, and I’d rather kill two lions than one; also I have a score to square.  But if you fellows are afraid, you go home.”

Well, I confess I felt inclined to accept the invitation, but Orme, who was nettled, replied: 

“Come, come; that settles the question, doesn’t it?  You must be shaken by your fall, or you would not talk like that, Higgs.  Look, here runs the spoor—­see the blood?  Well, let’s go steady and keep our wind.  We may come on her anywhere, but don’t you try any more long distance shots.  You won’t kill another lion at two hundred and fifty yards.”

“All right,” said Higgs, “don’t be offended.  I didn’t mean anything, except that I am going to teach that beast the difference between a white man and a Zeu.”

Then we began our march, following the blood tracks up and down the steep sand-slopes.  When we had been at it for about half-an-hour our spirits were cheered by catching sight of the lioness on a ridge five hundred yards away.  Just then, too, some of the Zeus overtook us and joined the hunt, though without zeal.

Meanwhile, as the day grew, the heat increased until it was so intense that the hot air danced above the sand slopes like billions of midges, and this although the sun was not visible, being hidden by a sort of mist.  A strange silence, unusual even in the desert, pervaded the earth and sky; we could hear the grains of sand trickling from the ridges.  The Zeus, who accompanied us, grew uneasy, and pointed upward with their spears, then behind toward the oasis of which we had long lost sight.  Finally, when we were not looking, they disappeared.