e to bring any lion
lurking near in range of the hunter's rifle. At other times goat ears
are spared, and the loudest-braying donkey of the caravan is picketed
immediately in front of the _zareba's_ porthole, his normal vocal
activities stimulated by the occasional prod of a stick. Sometimes
several weary sleepless nights are spent without result, but sooner or
later, without the slightest sound hinting his approach, suddenly a
great yellow body flashes out of the darkness and upon the cringing
lure. For an instant there are the sinister sounds of savage snarls,
rending flesh, cracking bones and screams of pain and fear, and then a
dull red flash heralds the rifle's roar, and the tawny terror falls
gasping his life out across his prey.

The second, and the only sportsmanlike way of lion-hunting, is by
tracking him in the open. The pony men circle till they find a trail,
follow it till close enough to the game to race ahead and bring it to
bay, circle about it while a messenger brings up the _Sahib_, who
dismounts and advances afoot to a combat wherein the echo of a
misplaced shot may sound his own death-knell.

One morning while camped in the Jig-Jigga country, William Marlow, our
_Sahib's_ valet, was out with the pony men trailing a wounded oryx,
while the _Sahib_ himself was three miles away shooting eland. In mid
forenoon Marlow's men struck the fresh track of two great male lions,
plainly out on a hunting party of their own.

Instantly Marlow rushed a messenger away to fetch the _Sahib_, and he
and the pony men then took the trail at a run. Within two hours the
pony men succeeded in circling the quarry and stopping it in a mimosa
thicket. Shortly thereafter, while they were circling and shouting
about the thicket to prevent a charge before the _Sahib's_ arrival, an
incident occurred which proves alike the utter fearlessness and the
marvellous knowledge of the game of the Somali. Suddenly out of the
shadows of the thicket sprang one of the lions and launched himself
like a thunderbolt upon one of the pony men, bearing horse and rider to
the ground. Losing his spear in the fall and held fast by one leg
beneath his horse, the rider was defenceless. However, he seized a
thorny stick and began beating the lion across the face, while the lion
tore at the pony's flank and quarters. Then down from his horse sprang
another pony man, and knowing he could not kill the lion with his spear
quickly enough to save hi