d do any damage; but in this I was unfortunately to
be proved mistaken.

Eventually we managed to get within eighty yards of the enraged animal,
I being about five yards to the left front of Spooner, who was followed
by Bhoota at about the same distance to his right rear. By this time
the lion was beside himself with fury, growling savagely and raising
quite a cloud of dust by lashing his tail against the ground. It was
clearly high time that we did something, so asking Spooner to fire,
dropped on one knee and waited. Nor was I kept long in suspense, for
the moment Spooner's shot rang out, up jumped the lion and charged down
in a bee-line for me, coming in long, low bounds at great speed. I
fired the right barrel at about fifty yards, but apparently missed; the
left at about half that range, still without stopping effect. I knew
then that there was no time reload, so remained kneeling, expecting him
to be on me the next moment. Suddenly, just as he was within a bound of
me, he made a quick turn, to my right. "Good heavens," I thought, "he
is going for Spooner." I was wrong in this, however, for like a flash
he passed Spooner also, and with a last tremendous bound seized Bhoota
by the leg and rolled over and over with him for some yards in the
impetus of the rush. Finally he stood over him and tried to seize him
by the throat, which the brave fellow prevented by courageously
stuffing his left arm right into the great jaws. Poor Bhoota! By moving
at the critical moment, he had diverted the lion's attention from me
and had drawn the whole fury of the charge on to himself.

All this, of course, happened in only a second or two. In the short
instant that intervened, I felt a cartridge thrust into my hand by
Spooner's plucky servant, Imam Din, who had carried the 12-bore all day
and who had stuck to me gallantly throughout the charge; and shoving it
in, I rushed as quickly as I could to Bhoota's rescue. Meanwhile,
Spooner had got there before me and when I came up actually had his
left hand on the lion's flank, in a vain attempt to push him off
Bhoota's prostrate body and so get at the heavy rifle which the poor
fellow still stoutly clutched. The lion, however, was so busily engaged
mauling Bhoota's arm that he paid not the slightest attention to
Spooner's efforts. Unfortunately, as he was facing straight in my
direction, I had to move up in full view of him, and the moment I
reached his head, he stopped chewing the arm, tho